Burna Boy Named Africa’s Best-Selling Artist With Record Milestone

(Burna Boy. Photo Credit: Vanguard News)

Grammy-winning Nigerian musician Burna Boy is Africa’s best-selling artist, according to Chartmasters, a global music analytics company, with an incredible 14.46 million Equivalent Album Units (EAS).

Citing information from Chartmasters, Nigerian music news outlet The Debut Hub made the announcement in a post on its official social media handle, @thedebuthub.

“JUST IN! Burna Boy returns as the #1 best-selling African artist of all time with 14.46 MILLION Equivalent Album Sales globally!” the post states.

A news correspondent reports that EAS is a standardised music industry metric used to equate singles, streams, and physical or digital purchases into one “album sale.”

It levels the playing field so traditional album purchases, counted as one unit, can be compared fairly to digital downloads and streaming activity across platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music.

According to Chartmasters, Burna Boy’s 14.46 million equivalent album units are derived from a combination of album sales, physical and digital single sales, and streaming equivalents, rather than pure album purchases alone.

It was further reported that the ranking marks another milestone for the Port Harcourt-born singer, who has become one of Africa’s most commercially successful music exports since gaining global mainstream recognition with his 2018 hit single, “Ye.”

Burna Boy has released several commercially successful projects, including African Giant (2019) and Love Damini (2022), both of which ranked among the most-streamed African albums on Spotify.

Beyond recorded music, he has also earned global recognition for his touring success, staging sold-out concerts at major international venues and further expanding the global reach of African music.

The latest Chartmasters ranking adds to the singer’s growing list of international achievements and underscores his commercial impact on the global music industry.

“Studio albums, other LPs (including compilations), physical singles, digital singles, and streaming (equivalents of album tracks) are all covered.”