Bob Marley Outsold The Rest Of 2021’s Top 10 Reggae Albums Combined (And Then Some)
Billboard revealed last month that Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Legend — a greatest hits collection first released in May 1984 by Island Records — was the best-selling Reggae album for the second year in a row, according to their Year-End Reggae Albums chart.
However, what was unclear, at the time, was just how much the album outperformed every other title in the highest tier of the chart. Legend handily outsold the rest of the albums inside the top 10 on the ranking combined, and it did so with plenty of room to spare.
According to data provided to DancehallMag from Billboard’s sales tracker MRC Data, the album actually sold 609,000 units from sales and streaming in the United States for 2021. This included 179,000 in pure album sales, while on-demand audio streams and on-demand video streams stood at 528,314,000 and 50,801,000, respectively.
The Reggae albums that ranked No. 2 through 10 collectively sold under 30,000 copies in pure album sales in 2021. This included a second entry for Marley at No. 9 for the group’s Gold album.
MRC Data sent DancehallMag the following table, which illustrates Marley’s distant first place position when it comes to Reggae music consumption via sales and streaming in the United States last year.
| Rank | Artist | Albums | Album Sales | OD Audio Streaming | OD Video Streaming |
| 1 | Bob Marley And The Wailers | Legend | 179,000 | 528,314,000 | 50,801,000 |
| 2 | Shaggy | Best Of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection | 2,300 | 159,339,800 | 39,229,600 |
| 3 | Stick Figure | World On Fire | 7,100 | 92,252,800 | 4,697,400 |
| 4 | Sean Paul | Dutty Classics Collection | 600 | 177,203,000 | 67,767,100 |
| 5 | Stick Figure | Set In Stone | 6,600 | 87,975,500 | 7,296,800 |
| 6 | UB40 | Greatest Hits | 2,200 | 93,179,200 | 13,607,200 |
| 7 | Jason Mraz | Look For The Good | 3,500 | 123,545,500 | 14,380,300 |
| 8 | Sean Paul | Dutty Rock | 400 | 94,111,100 | 22,753,700 |
| 9 | Bob Marley And The Wailers | Gold | 3,700 | 491,933,600 | 45,637,000 |
| 10 | Skip Marley | Higher Place | 2,900 | 42,736,200 | 9,186,200 |
According to Billboard, Legend had also copped No. 6 on the Year-End Top R&B Albums chart and No. 32 on the Year-End Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for albums sold in the US for 2021.
It is the best-selling reggae album of all time, with over 15 million copies sold in the US, over 3.9 million copies in the UK, and an estimated 33 million copies sold globally. In 2003, the album was No. 46 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.
Legend had debuted at No. 54 on the Billboard 200 in 1984, bearing 14 tracks of Marley’s most-loved tunes: Is This Love, No Woman No Cry, Three Little Birds, Get Up Stand Up, Buffalo Soldier, Exodus, I Shot the Sheriff, Stir it Up; BBC’s Song of the Century One Love, Redemption Song, Jamming and Waiting in Vain.
It was a regular fixture on the 200 chart, until 1991—when Billboard made “old” albums ineligible for the listing. In 2009, Billboard repealed that rule and the album returned to chart and later peaked at No. 5 in 2014.
As of January 11, 2022, Legend holds the No. 1 spot for the 105th week in a row on the weekly Billboard Reggae Albums chart. Billboard had similarly amended their rules, allowing the 37-year-old album to rule the weekly Reggae chart, unopposed, since January 2020.