Black Sabbath was formed in Birmingham, England back in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. Almost two years later their groundbreaking self-titled debut album was recorded in only a few hours and it simply created a new music genre, paving the way for a really incredible and successful career. From then on the band released real masterpieces which became some of the most influential records of all time, inspiring countless Hard Rock and Metal bands over the decades.
Although the original line-up came to an end for the first time in the late 70s, the group continued to produce sucessful albums with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and also many underrated records with other vocalists. In more than five decades of existence, the band released 19 studio albums and sold an estimated amount of more than 75 million albums worldwide.
But which was Black Sabbath’s best-selling album and also the less popular one? Rock and Roll ranked all the records by album sales to answer that question, using Chart Masters as the source for those numbers.
All the Black Sabbath albums ranked by sales
1 – “Paranoid” (1970) – More than 9.9 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
2 – “Black Sabbath” (1970) – More than 4.9 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
3 – “Master of Reality” (1971) – More than 4.8 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
4 – “Vol. 4” (1972) – More than 4.1 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
5 – “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” (1973) – More than 4 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
6 – “Heaven and Hell” (1980) – More than 3.4 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
7 – “Sabotage” (1975) – More than 2.5 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
8 – “Mob Rules” (1981) – More than 1.9 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Vinny Appice (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
9 – “Technical Ecstasy” (1976) – More than 1.490 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
10 – “Never Say Die” (1978) – More than 1.420 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
11 – “Born Again” (1983) – More than 1.4 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ian Gillan (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bill Ward (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
12 – “13” (2013) – More than 1.2 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ozzy Osbourne (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Brad Wilk (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
13 – “Dehumanizer” (1992) – More than 1 million copies sold
Band’s line-up: Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Vinny Appice (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).
14 – “Seventh Star” (1986) – More than 790 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Glenn Hughes (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Eric Singer (Drums), Dave Spitz (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
15 – “Headless Cross” (1989) – More than 740 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Tony Martin (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Cozy Powell (Drums), Laurence Cottie (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
16 – “The Eternal Idol” (1987) – More than 620 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Tony Martin (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Eric Singer (Drums), Bob Daisley (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
17 – “Tyr” (1990) – More than 610 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Tony Martin (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Cozy Powell (Drums), Neil Murray (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
18 – “Cross Purposes” (1994) – More than 510 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Tony Martin (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Bobby Rondinelli (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
19 – “Forbidden” (1995) – More than 410 thousand copies sold
Band’s line-up: Tony Martin (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Cozy Powell (Drums), Neil Murray (Bass), Geoff Nichols (Keyboards).
Bonus: Heaven and Hell – “The Devil You Know” (2009) – More than 320 thousand copies sold
“Forbidden” is the Black Sabbath album that sold less copies but if we count the 2009 album “The Devil You Know”, which was recorded by the spin-off group Heaven and Hell, it’s the studio album which sold less copies in Sabbath’s universe.
Band’s line-up: Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Tony Iommi (Guitar), Vinny Appice (Drums), Geezer Butler (Bass).