Rock music has changed dramatically over the decades spawning numerous sounds, subgenres and legendary bands. Since the 1960’s, many rock bands have had great success however, who were the best sellers for each decade?

Although not fair to bands that may become sensations in the middle of a decade, the list below contains bands that clearly were commercial successes, top Selling Rock Bands and, in some cases, huge influences on future bands.

Selling Rock Band Highlights

The best-selling rock bands or albums ever are below. These are regarded as greatest selling rock bands of all the time.

• 1960’s – The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
• 1970’s – Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd
• 1980’s – Queen & AC/DC
• 1990’s – Nirvana & Metallica
• 2000’s – Linkin Park & Coldplay
• 2010’s – Imagine Dragons & Twenty One Pilots

1960’s – The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

You cannot talk about music in the 1960’s without talking about the Beatles, the largest selling band of all time. Comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the band created rock music which combined infectious vocals and cutting-edge studio work.

As an illustration, it was having 35 Top Ten Billboard hits, and moreover it is even more remarkable that 20 went to #1 during their eight years as a band.

Their singles include She Loves You, I Want to Hold Your Hand, Can’t Buy Me Love, Get Back, Hey Jude, Let It Be, We Can Work It Out and Yesterday. The albums, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road dominated the charts and established new standards in songwriting and album creation.

Consequently, the Beatles have sold over 600 million albums worldwide and a staggering 1.6 billion singles in the U.S. alone.

The Rolling Stones, on the other hand, followed The Beatles in popularity and sales of records. For their raw power and blues-inspired rock, the Rolling Stones, fronted by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, were the poster kids for the edgier British Invasion.

They had 23 Top 10 hits and 8 went to the coveted #1 spot. Albums, including Aftermath and Let It Bleed, cemented their spot among the largest rock groups of the ‘60s. As a result, they continued to have success into later decades and sold 250 million records worldwide.

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1970’s – Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd

During the decade of the 1970’s, rock music grew to be louder and heavier and Led Zeppelin Led the charge. Rock band lovers know it as Best selling rock bands or albums in 70’s

They fused blues, folk and rock and produced a unique sound and legendary live shows, created by Robert Plant vocals and Jimmy Page’s guitar riffs. Albums like “Led Zeppelin IV”; featuring the classic “Stairway to Heaven”, along with “Physical Graffiti” turned into commercial smashes.

Therefore, Led Zeppelin sold over 200 million records throughout the ten years and eventually 300 million in total. The band had eight consecutive #1 albums in the UK and six #1 albums on the US Billboard 200.

Similarly, while Led Zeppelin ruled hard rock, Pink Floyd were the Kings of progressive rock with intricate concept albums and live shows.

Their 1973 release the “Dark Side of The Moon” spent an astounding 741 weeks on the charts and sold over forty-five million copies.

Another conceptual masterpiece, “The Wall”, saw continuing success into the late 1970’s. As shown above, Pink Floyd’s total album sales throughout the decade surpassed 100 million, which positioned them one of the top sellers of the ten years.

1980’s – Queen & AC/DC

Although Queen started making waves during the 1970s, the ‘80’s saw them turn into one of the top selling rock bands of all time.

With Freddie Mercury’s vocals and Brian May on lead guitar, Queen hit songs included “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Under Pressure” and the classic “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Freddie Mercury’s commanding stage presence and the band’s impeccable musicianship blew away stadium audiences in London and Philadelphia and the global television audience of two billion watching the 1985 Live Aid concert. Not only were their albums large sellers, but they eventually totaled over 300 million.

By comparison, AC / DC entered the 1980’s with hard rock and roll. The group released “Back in Black” with new singer Brian Johnson, who replaced the original lead singer Bon Scott after he died in 1980. The album sold over fifty million copies worldwide and reached #4 on the charts.

As a result, the best selling rock band 80s remained commercially successful throughout the decade with high energy performances and straightforward rock songs.

In fact, in the 1980’s AC/DC sold over a hundred million records and doubled that amount over the years.

1990’s – Nirvana & Metallica

The 1990’s were epitomized by the ‘grunge movement’ and no band represented that genre more than Nirvana.

Under Kurt Cobain, Nirvana released their 1991 album “Nevermind” and the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” made the band superstars.

Cobain’s raw sound and troubled lyrics spoke to a generation and propelled them to the decade’s best-selling rock band. Despite their time was cut short by Cobain’s 1994 death, Nirvana sold over seventy-five million albums worldwide, nearly all the sales happened in the 1990’s.

However, though grunge dominated the early 1990’s, Metallica stayed a mainstay in mainstream heavy rock.

Their 1991 self-titled album (sometimes called “The Black album”) was among the best-selling albums of the decade and contained hits such as “Enter Sandman” and “The Unforgiven.”

At this point, Metallica has sold over 125 million albums worldwide, with six of their studio albums in a row debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200.

It is known as top selling rock bands in 90’s.

2000’s – Linkin Park & Coldplay

New rock bands in the 2000’s blended metal, hip-hop and electronic components. By contrast, Linkin Park became the most commercially successful among these acts categorized mainly as alternative rock and nu metal in their early years.

The band’s music spanned a fusion of heavy metal and hip hop, while their later music features more electronica and pop elements.

As a result,they sold over 27 million copies of their 2000 debut album “Hybrid Theory” worldwide with singles “One Step Closer”, “Crawling”, and “In the End” all charting highly on the US Mainstream Rock charts.

Follow-up albums, “Meteora” in 2003, “Minutes to Midnight” in 2007 and “A Thousand Suns” in 2010 made them the top selling rock group of the decade with over 21 million albums sold. Eventually, they went on to sell over 100 million records in the first quarter of the 21st century.

Coldplay debuted with their album” Parachutes” during the early 2000s and with their follow-up albums “A Rush of Blood to the Head” in 2002 and “X & Y” in 2005, they scored three of the 50 best-selling albums in the United Kingdom of all time.

“Viva la Vida” was released in 2008 and the title track from that album merely went on to win the Grammy Award for “Song of the Year”. With continued success following the decade, the band are renowned for their melodic rock and emotional performances.

Furthermore, the band has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. And also a top-selling rock band, the first group in Spotify history to reach 90 million monthly listeners.

2010’s – Imagine Dragons & Twenty One Pilots

Imagine Dragons supplied alternative rock with electronic beats to mainstream music in the 2010’s. Their 2012 debut album “Night Visions” that had the hits “Radioactive” and “Demons”, made them international stars.

Rolling Stone named “Radioactive”, which held the record for most weeks charted on the Billboard Hot 100, the “biggest rock hit of the year”.

Best Selling Rock bands in 21st century

Afterward, this success was followed by “Smoke + Mirrors” in 2015, “Evolve” in 2017 and “Origins” in 2018; all three hitting #1 on the U.S. Rock Charts.

Thus, Imagine Dragons have sold more than 74 million albums and 65 million digital songs worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling rock band.

To clarify, they were the most-streamed group of 2018 on Spotify, the first rock act to have four songs, “Radioactive”, “Demons”, “Believer”, and “Thunder”, surpassing one billion streams each.

Twenty One Pilots are unique in that, although they started out as a “band”, that evolved into a Duo when two of the original three members left in 2011 and were replaced by drummer, Josh Dun. Since that point, the duo has blended several genres, rock, pop & hip hop, to attain success.

They were signed by record label “Fueled by Ramen” in 2012 and released their debut album “Vessel” in 2013. Success was immediate and it became only the second album in history on which every track received at least a gold certification.

As can be seen, their 2015 album “Blurryface” which had the singles “Stressed Out” and “Ride” also became commercial smashes.

The release of “Heathens” in 2016 made the group the third rock act in history to have two singles simultaneously chart in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, joining the Beatles and Elvis Presley.

All in all, by the end of the decade, Imagine Dragons had sold more than sixty million records worldwide and had been among the best 2 selling rock bands of the ten years.

Grab the most from the rock band albums

To this end, from the British Invasion of the 1960’s to the alt-rock revolution of the 2000s, the largest-selling rock bands of each decade defined their eras and sold countless records

Those rock band albums are shaping rock music for decades to come.