10 Best Selling Rock Bands Of All Time

The Rolling Stones are one of the seminal bands in Rock history. They are also one of the longest-running bands in the history of popular music.

Though initially seen as the rougher, grittier, and more blues-driven equivalent of the Beatles back in the 60s, they quickly came into their own and started delivering hard-hitting tracks like Sympathy for the Devil and I Can't Get No (Satisfaction).

Driven by the songwriting team of singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards, the band has won acclaim fame, and a lasting legacy.

With over 30 studio albums, 12 live albums, 29 compilations, and 121 singles to their name, listing out the Stones' accolades would make this list cross into novel length. Suffice it to say, there's a reason why the group has sold the number of records it has and continues to tour to this day.

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Aerosmith is another enduring Rock band that came into the scene two decades after the Stones. However, their legacy rivals their predecessor.

This Boston band came into the scene during the rise of Hard Rock and early metal in the mainstream and through the soaring vocals of singer Steven Tyler and the piercing lead guitar of Joe Perry, quickly distinguished themselves from their peers.

In fact, many saw the songwriting team of Tyler and Perry as the second coming of Jagger and Richards, but the bad boys from Boston beat those charges. Unlike many bands from their era, their relevancy continues to today

Another interesting tidbit is that through their collab with rap group RUN DMC, the Boston band played an integral part in both the rising prominence of early Rap and the birth of a genre called Rap Rock.

Metallica is quite literally the most prominent band in all of Heavy Metal. In fact, they brought the genre into mainstream relevancy.

From their Thrash Metal roots in the 80s to their controversial use of ballads and emotional love songs to their continued prominence which can be seen in the release of their most recent album, 72 Seasons, no other band in Metal has reached the highs and lows of this band.

Despite a career filled with allegations of selling out, tensions between band members, feuds with other prominent bands, and all the various trappings of the Rock and Roll lifestyle, the group is still alive and kicking well into their 4th decade as well as selling out records and arenas. They deserve their glory and have lived long enough to enjoy it.

U2 is an Irish Rock band known for their well-meaning and inspirational songs. They are one of the most popular and ambitious groups ever.

Spearheaded by lead singer Bono, who is as known for his philanthropy as for his music, the group has evolved from their initial Post-Punk sound to craft a musical style that can only be described as U2. From creating stadium-ready anthems to videos spreading awareness about human-life crises to collaborating with rappers like Kendrick Lamar, U2 has done it all.

At the center of their music though is the message, which has always remained the same: Be kind, be happy, and love your fellow man. With their 15th and most recent album Songs of Surrender coming out a little over a month ago, U2 are alive and kicking 43 years after their debut release.

Pink Floyd is an important group in the pop sub-genre Progressive Rock. They are known for their sprawling concept albums.

From the mind-bending lunacy of The Dark Side of the Moon to the dystopian story of The Wall to the anti-capitalist ravings of Animals to the mournful beauty of Wish You Were Here, Floyd has released some of the most well-regarded albums in all of Rock, no, music history.

As such, besides The Beatles, they might be the most "important" band on this list as few have utilized the album format as well as Floyd. With songs that seamlessly flowed into one another, many of their records are built to be consumed in one sitting, and have the artistic wherewithal to merit such a task.

Their best-selling album The Dark Side of the Moon is actually the fourth best-selling album of all time, and charted for over 979 weeks in the Billboard Top Lps & Tape chart.

AC/DC is the most successful Australian Rock band in history. Unlike Pink Floyd, the band is known for sticking to and perfecting one sound.

However, they are the perfect example of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" as their sound is a very basic but indelible mixture of Hard Rock, Blues Rock, and Heavy Metal. However, the band has deemed it fit to call their sound simply Rock and Roll.

From their origins in the early 1970s, the band has remained successful despite their sound falling out of favor in the last two decades of the 20th century. Even more, they lost their iconic lead singer Bon Scott right around the time they were about to reach the apex of their fame.

But the band persevered, and now they are not only one of the top-selling rock bands of all time, but their names are irrevocably linked to all things related to Rock and Roll.

Led Zeppelin is one of the most iconic Hard Rock groups in history. This fearsome foursome ruled the 1970s with their electric music.

With the soaring vocals of Robert Plant, the virtuoso lead guitar of Jimmy Page, the rhythmic bass-playing of John Paul Jones, and the thunderous drumming of the late John Bonham, Zeppelin was and remains one of the tightest four pieces in all of pop music.

Over the course of a little over a decade, the group crafted one of the most perfect discographies with hit after hit after hit. Not only did they deliver amazing Album Oriented Rock, but are responsible for some of the most undying singles in the genre.

In fact, one of their songs Stairway to Heaven is widely considered to be THE greatest Rock song of all time. A soaring trip, the song showcases the strength of each member and is a haunting piece of music.

The Eagles are a very successful Californian band. They are known for their blend of Folk, Country, and Soft Rock sounds.

With over five number-one singles, six Grammy Awards, five American Music Awards, and six number-one albums, this Californian group is one of the most successful acts of the 1970s. Their signature track Hotel California is a seminal piece of Desert Rock that has surpassed its discography to become a mainstream pop landmark.

Like most bands of their stature, they went through various upheavals and breakups and have only been active from 1971-1980, then from 1994 to 2016, and now from 2017 onwards. Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) compilation is the best-selling album in all of the United States, while their aforementioned track is the third most-sold single of all time in the US.

Queen is one of the biggest Rock bands of all time. Like Zeppelin, they were an English four-piece who impacted the course of Hard Rock music.

However, Queen has since become known more for their unique blend of Prog, Arena, and Pop Rock. During their classic phase in the 1970s, they were led by the late iconic Freddie Mercury as a singer, the veritable Sir Brian May on the lead guitars, the dependable John Deacon on bass, and the booming Roger Taylor on drums.

Like the Eagles, their best-selling album is their Greatest Hits, which in turn is the most-sold album in the United Kingdom, while being nine times platinum in the United States. However, the crowning jewel in their discography is the sprawling epic, Bohemian Rhapsody, which is widely considered the finest example of Opera in Rock music.

The Beatles are not only the best-selling band but also the most influential. Rock still lives under their shadow as they touched everything.

From the iconic songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney to the experimentations they did in the studio that changed the way music recording took place, the leaps and bounds they made less than a decade they were together changed popular music for the better.

Though their confirmed sales are almost 300 million, their claimed sales worldwide range from over 600 million units sold. They also possess the most #1 hits on the Hot 100 with 20, and each member of the band has been individually inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame between 1994 to 2015, with the group having been inducted in 1988.