IFPI, the body that represents the record industry worldwide, has been publishing an intriguing series of stats this week about the global recorded music business in 2022.
On Wednesday, for example, it revealed that Taylor Swift’s recorded music generated more money globally than any other artist in 2022.
Yesterday (February 23), it revealed that As It Was by Harry Styles was the biggest single globally in 2022, having generated 2.28 billion global subscription stream equivalent units last year.
On Friday (February 24), Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti was announced as the biggest album, globally, in 2022, winning the IFPI’s Global Album Award for 2022, and topping its Global Albums chart, as a result.
IFPI says that its Global Albums Chart takes into account all consumption formats, spanning physical sales, digital downloads, and streaming platforms across a calendar year.
Crucially, IFPI notes that the chart “is weighted based on the relative value of each method of consumption.”
As explained by MBW alongside Thursday’s news about the IFPI’s Top 20 artists chart, which Taylor Swift topped, what that means in practice is that IFPI’s Top 20 albums list (which you can see in full below) reveals, in order, the albums that generated the most money last year globally across streaming, download, and physical record sales (combined) in 2022.
Here is the full albums chart:
Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti
Taylor Swift, Midnights
Harry Styles, Harry’s House
BTS, Proof
Encanto Cast Encanto OST
Stray Kids, MAXIDENT
SEVENTEEN, Face The Sun
BLACKPINK, BORN PINK
Olivia Rodrigo, SOUR
Ed Sheeran =
ENHYPEN, MANIFESTO: DAY 1
Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album
Doja Cat, Planet Her
Stray Kids, ODDINARY
The Weeknd, Dawn FM
TOMORROW X TOGETHER, minisode 2: Thursday’s Child
Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE
SEVENTEEN, SECTOR 17
The Kid LAROI, F*CK LOVE (Mix Tape)
Drake, Certified Lover Boy
IFPI notes that Bad Bunny is the first Latin American artist to win an IFPI Global Chart Award.
Un Verano Sin Ti, the fifth album from the Puerto Rican rapper and singer, was released in May 2022. The 23-track album, which is an all-Spanish language record, went on to spend 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 album chart, and later that year became the first Spanish-language album to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Elsewhere in the Global Albums Chart, there were successes for a range of artists – from Taylor Swift, IFPI’s Global Recording Artist Of The Year 2022, whose album Midnights charted at No.2, to the UK’s Harry Styles’ Harry’s House which charted at No.3 (Styles also won the IFPI Global Single of the Year Award 2022 for his smash success As It Was).
Both Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR (No.9) and Ed Sheeran’s = (No.10) spent a second year in the Top 10, while the original soundtrack for Encanto reached No.5.
Eight of the 20 albums featured on the chart were from South Korean acts, lef by BTS’ Proof in the No.4 spot.
Both Stray Kids (MAXIDENT No.6 and ODDINARY No.14) and SEVENTEEN (Face The Sun No.7; SECTOR 17 No.18) had two albums in the Top 20, while TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ENHYPEN both appeared in the Global Albums Chart for the first time, at No.11 and No.16 with MANIFESTO: DAY 1 and minisode 2: Thursday’s Child respectively.
South Korean girl group BLACKPINK also made their debut in the Top 10 with their album BORN PINK which charted at No.8.
“We are incredibly excited to award Bad Bunny, the first Latin American artist to win an IFPI Global Award, with the Album of the Year Award.”
Frances Moore, Chief Executive, IFPI, said: “We are incredibly excited to award Bad Bunny, the first Latin American artist to win an IFPI Global Award, with the Album of the Year Award.
“His unique sound, encapsulated in his award-winning album Un Verano Sin Ti, has captured the world’s attention on a remarkable scale over the last 12 months.
Added Moore: “This year’s Global Albums Chart bears testament to the incredible partnerships that exist between artists and record labels.
“These partnerships nurture and support artists while they write and record their music before going on to promote albums on a global level, achieving extraordinary amounts of success around the world.”Music Business Worldwide
