Eminem makes hip-hop history as 'The Eminem Show' crosses over 40 million units sold worldwide

Eminem has made history with his 2002 classic, The Eminem Show. The album recently crossed the 40 million equivalent sales mark worldwide, becoming the first hip-hop album to ever achieve this feat. With this, the Detroit rapper has added another feather to his cap, which was already loaded with accolades.

As per ChartMasters.org’s recent update, The Eminem Show has now sold 40,004,000 copies worldwide. Over 23 million of the total sales for TES come from studio album-equivalent units. The rest of the breakdown of total sales shows Eminem’s dominance in his prime and is a testament to how well his body of work has aged over the years. The graphic can be seen below.

The Eminem Show was the rapper’s fourth studio album and a follow-up to his 2000 classic, The Marshall Mathers LP. The album had to be released prematurely, which impacted its official first-week sales. In a limited 12-hour tracking period, TES sold nearly 285,000 copies.

In its second week, 1.3 million copies of the album were sold, making it one of the fastest-selling hip-hop albums ever. In nearly 23 years, it has now sold over 40 million copies. TES is also the 37th best-selling album of all time across genres. The recently released data also highlighted some of the other best-selling hip-hop albums of all time.

Eminem currently occupies three spots in the top five and has a total of five albums in the top 10 list. TES is followed by The Marshall Mathers LP with over 36 million total worldwide sales. The late, great 2Pac’s All Eyes on Me is the third best-selling hip-hop album of all time with over 24 million copies sold.

All Eyes on Me was released in February 1996, just seven months before the West Coast legend tragically passed away. While Eminem and 2Pac are two of the most renowned rappers ever, there are some albums on the best-selling list that fans might not have guessed if given an option.

The South Orange hip-hop trio Fugees, comprising of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel, have the fourth best-selling hip-hop album ever. The trio’s second and final studio album The Score was released on the same day as 2Pac’s All Eyes on Me, and it has now sold over 22 million copies.

Eminem has three more albums on the list, Recovery (over 21 million), the 8 Mile soundtrack and Encore (both over 19 million). Hill has another entry on the list but as a solo artist with her 1998 classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.