This appears to be a simple misunderstanding This archived CNN article retrieved by a simple Google search seems to clear up this dispute entirely It confirms that the RIAA did indeed officially honor the album as the top selling album of the century but it only factored in US sales The article specifies that Thriller sold 6 million more copies than Greatest Hits in terms of worldwide sales I originally missed what Piriczki was saying too but they do in fact specify in the US a claim that appears to be correct despite the fact that it s not the greatest selling album of all time this claim is not being made at all Are we good here X