K-pop acts swept global album sales in 2023, capturing 19 of the top 20 positions led by boy band Seventeen. 

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the recorded music industry worldwide, announced three additional Global Album Charts, highlighting the biggest releases of 2023 by sales and the top selling vinyl and streaming albums of the year.

Seventeen (Pledis Entertainment)

Taylor Swift (Instagram)

It recently released its IFPI Global Music Report, which announced annual growth in recorded music revenues of 10.2 percent globally, including acceleration in subscription streaming revenues and double-digit growth across physical formats.

IFPI Global Album Sales Chart 2023

After topping the IFPI Global Album Chart, K-pop boy band Seventeen took the No. 1 spot on the new IFPI Global Album Sales Chart, which measured unit sales across all physical formats, as well as full album downloads – a combination sometimes known as “pure sales.”

IFPI said Seventeen’s “FML” album sold 6.4 million units globally in 2023, breaking the record for most pre-orders ever for an album in South Korea, and placing first on the Global Album Sales Chart for 2023. 

Seventeen announced the new achievement in a video released by IFPI and Pledis Entertainment.

The IFPI Global Album Sales Chart showed 19 of the top 10 albums coming from South Korean artists, “demonstrating their global dominance of the physical album format.” 

The only non-Korean artist present in the top 20 is IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year, Taylor Swift, whose album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” also topped the IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart.

IFPI Global Album Sales Chart 2023

(Photo from IFPI) 

IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart

Swift bagged the top three places on IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart, with four others in the top 20 for a total of seven. 

Her “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” is No. 1 followed by “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “Midnights” while “folklore” is No. 7, “Lover” at No. 9, “evermore” at No. 13 and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” at No. 15.

IFPI Global Vinyl Album Chart 2023 

(Photo from IFPI) 

IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart

Under the  IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart, American artist Morgan Wallen garnered his first ever IFPI Global Chart No. 1. 

The IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart counts global streams from both ad-supported and subscription platforms and calculates a weighted global unit number taking into account differing economics across regions. 

Wallen’s 2023 album “One Thing at a Time” was the biggest streaming album of the year on this basis, with Wallen also appearing at No. 9 with “Dangerous: The Double Album.”

IFPI Global Streaming Album Chart 2023

(Photo from IFPI) 

"Congratulations to SEVENTEEN and Taylor Swift for their second IFPI Global Charts awards of 2023, and to Morgan Wallen for his first ever global #1. Each of these artists created (or in the case of Taylor, reimagined) incredible music which found a global audience and achieved enormous commercial success in 2023, and the charts themselves highlight the multitude of ways in which music fans are engaging with their favorite albums all over the world,” said Lewis Morrison, director of Global Charts & Certifications at IFPI.  

He added, “As highlighted in IFPI’s Global Music Report, revenues from both digital and physical music formats continue to see healthy growth, and the combination of fantastic artistry, format variety and the tireless work of record labels is the foundation on which this growth is built. Well done to everyone who featured in each of the album charts, which are a great summary of a fantastic year for global recorded music.”