page_title: List of best-selling albums by year in the United States
section_title: 1980s
hierarchical_section_title: List of best-selling albums by year in the United States / 1980s
caption_attribution_description: Michael Jackson
context_page_description: This is a list of the best-selling albums by year in the United States. Billboard magazine began publishing year-end lists for album sales in 1956. Until 1991, the Billboard album chart was based on a survey of representative retail outlets that determined a ranking, not a tally of actual sales. Weekly surveys and year-end charts by Billboard and other publications such as now defunct Cash Box magazine sometimes differed. For instance, during the 1960s and 1970s, the number-one album as determined by these two publications differed in 10 out of 20 years. From 1992 onwards, the Billboard year-end and weekly charts were calculated by Nielsen SoundScan. Note that this slightly differs from prior Billboard year-end album charts, which were a measure of chart performances over twelve months from around December to November rather than actual total sales.
caption: Michael Jackson's Thriller was the best-selling album for two years in a row.
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