Historic.
It’s safe to say that 2025 will go down in history as the year of Morgan Wallen. While there’s no denying he’s been nothing short of a powerhouse since the start of the decade, namely scoring huge numbers from the likes of Dangerous: The Double Album and namely One Thing At A Time, which contained 2023’s top song of the year, “Last Night,” among other massive hits, 2025 has proven to be his best year to date.
Earlier in the month, Wallen topped the list of plenty of different year-end lists. Beyond his placement as iHeart Radio’s Top Country Artist of 2025, he also scored the most-listened-to album on Apple Music globally, the #1 most-listened-to album in the U.S. on Spotify and became the second male country artist in history to be named Billboard’s Top Artist of the Year.
Just when you thought the “Whiskey Glasses” singer was done breaking records this year, he just etched his name in the history book today by not only becoming the highest-selling country artist of all time according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) but also the third-highest-selling artist in history, all-genre.
Receiving a mind-blowing 80 new certifications this morning, Wallen has now sold over 240 million units in his career, third only to global superstars Taylor Swift (247.5 million) and Drake (331.5 million). Additionally, he has now sold the second-most singles by any artist in history and has totaled an incredible 26 million albums sold.
Notably, Wallen is now the first country artist in history to own five separate certified-Diamond songs with “Heartless” (10x platinum), “Whiskey Glasses” (13x platinum), “Chasin’ You” (10x platinum), “Wasted On You” (12x Platinum) and “Last Night” (12x platinum), all selling over 10 million units.
While all of this sounds great, the RIAA (and its subsequent certification process) can be a bit confusing, so let me explain how it all works.
Starting with their background, the RIAA is a trade organization consisting of major record labels and distributors that aims to “support and promote the creative and commercial vitality of music labels in the United States.” With that being said, however, their primary feature, in terms of public discussion of music, is undoubtedly their tracking of artists’ sales. These sales, of course, are tracked in terms of “gold,” “platinum,” and “diamond” certifications once a song or album hits the required criteria.
RIAA Criteria
When a single or album has sold at least 500,000 units, it is then eligible for a Gold certification; when it hits 1 million, it is eligible for Platinum certification. And finally, a song or record must sell 10 million units for it to be certified Diamond. There have been only 18 Diamond-Certified songs in country music history. And keep in mind that the RIAA doesn’t just keep a running tab on these awards and hand out plaques; an artist’s label will actively pursue certification by applying, submitting statistics, and paying a few hundred dollars to undergo an audit to verify the sales. And then… You must purchase a plaque for each person involved. Well, only if you want to…
As for what constitutes a “unit,” there are distinctions between sales regarding both singles and albums. Starting with singles, one paid download or 150 on-demand streams constitutes a unit. Albums, on the other hand, are a bit different. Given how popular streaming is in today’s age, there are three different ways an album can sell a single unit: 1) a permanent digital album or physical album sale, which basically means someone bought the record; 2) 10 permanent track downloads from the album, which laughably wouldn’t even be 1/3 of a Wallen album these days; or 3) 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album. Of course, streaming is how a bulk of the units are earned these days.
Incredibly, every single song on both 2021’s Dangerous: The Double Album (30) and 2023’s One Thing At A Time (36) have already been certified in some capacity by the RIAA. Even more incredibly, 22 of the 37 songs on his latest album, I’m The Problem, which was released just seven months ago, were just certified gold and platinum.
As for other notable certifications, I’m The Problem was certified 4x platinum, One Thing At A Time was certified 9x platinum, Dangerous: The Double Album was also certified 9x platinum and Wallen’s 2018 debut album, If I Know Me, was certified 4x platinum.
RIAA Chairman & CEO, Mitch Glazier, would comment on the remarkable nature of Wallen’s newest accomplishment, noting how unprecedented his success in the genre has been.
“Morgan Wallen’s rise has been nothing short of remarkable. A trajectory powered through deep fan connection, multiple creative collaborations and partnerships with Big Loud and Republic Records. Less than a decade after earning his first Gold singles, he has officially become the highest RIAA certified Country artist with 265.5M units, including credits on five Diamond-certified or higher singles! The sheer volume of streams behind this achievement speaks to how actively audiences continue to show up and his sustained journey reshaping modern music. Congratulations on this new height as Morgan and his team set their sights on the next.
As previously mentioned, Wallen is now the highest-selling country artist of all time, holding a nearly incomprehensible 76 million unit lead on second-place Luke Combs, who recently became the highest-selling artist in the genre for a few months after passing Garth Brooks’ long-time lead which was held for decades.
As always, you can love or hate Wallen, his musical output and his off-stage shenanigans. However, you can never deny the sheer staying power and success he’s experienced over the course of the decade. Taking a look at the staggering amount of top spots he’s taken not only in country music but in all-genre charts as well, it’s becoming more and more apparent that the “20 Cigarettes” singer has becoming nothing short of a phenomenon. It’s likely we’ll never see another artist with such an undeniable chokehold over the genre, its charts and pure sales quite the way Wallen has. With the combination of becoming the third-highest-selling artist of all time and his recent first-career Top Artist of the Year win, there will be some uncomfortable conversations to be had about his placement among the most successful artists in the genre’s history.
