Over 10 Million Units Sold Among Grammy’s Best Reggae Album Winners

Forty years after The Recording Academy first presented the Best Reggae Album award (formerly known as Best Reggae Recording), the reggae category continues to thrive, according to Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. This year alone, 75 albums were submitted for consideration in the Best Reggae Album category. While Grammy nominations and awards are not based on sales or streams, the true measure of a genre’s success is reflected in the number of albums sold.

With over 10 million album equivalent units sold (12,723,900 units in total) among the winners, World Music Views (WMV) has utilized updated data from the Billboard sales tracker Luminate (formerly Nielsen/MRC Data), which began tracking sales in 1991, to rank the albums that have received the Best Reggae Album/Best Reggae Recording award at the Grammys.

To date, 40 albums have received this prestigious accolade. Ziggy Marley holds the record for the most wins in the Best Reggae Album category, having taken home the Grammy in 1989, 1990, 1998, 2007, 2014, 2015, and 2017.

Every year WMV release an update list of sales data with the Best Reggae Album winners from and the year they won. Below is the list as of 2024, ranked by album equivalent units sold in the U.S.

1. Sean Paul – Dutty Rock (2004) – Total Units: 3,500,000
2. Shaggy – Boombastic (1996) – Total Units: 1,200,000
3. Damian Marley – Welcome To Jamrock (2006) – Total Units: 1,200,000
4. Inner Circle – Bad Boys (1994) – Total Units: 1,100,000
5. Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers – Conscious Party (1989) – Total Units: 1,000,000
6. Shabba Ranks – As Raw As Ever (1992) – Total Units: 679,000
7. Shabba Ranks – X-Tra Naked (1993) – Total Units: 522,000
8. Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers – One Bright Day (1990) – Total Units: 500,000
9. Beenie Man– Art & Life (2001)- Total Units: 477,000
10. Ziggy Marley – Love Is My Religion (2007) – Total Units: 352,000
11. Stephen Marley – Mind Control (2008) – Total Units: 336,000
12. Damian Marley – Halfway Tree (2002) – Total Units: 248,000
13. Toots & The Maytals – True Love (2005) – Total Units: 221,000
14. Damian Marley – Stony Hill (2018) – Total Units: 167,000
15. Stephen Marley – Mind Control (Acoustics) (2010) – Total Units: 162,000
16. Koffee – Rapture (2020) – Total Units: 152,000
17. Ziggy Marley – In Concert (2014) – Total Units: 147,000
18. Stephen Marley – Revelation Pt. 1 – The Root Of Life (2012) – Total Units: 114,000
19. Sting & Shaggy – 44/876 (2019) – Total Units: 96,000
20. Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers – Fallen Is Babylon (1998) – Total Units: 86,000
21. Steel Pulse – Babylon The Bandit (1987) – Total Units: 79,000
22. Peter Tosh – No Nuclear War (1988) – Total Units: 56,000
23. Jimmy Cliff – Rebirth (2013) – Total Units: 57,000
24. Burning Spear – Calling Rastafari (2000) – Total Units: 42,000
25. SOJA – Beauty In the Silence (2022) – Total Units: 35,000
26. Ziggy Marley – Fly Rasta (2015) – Total Units: 31,000
27. Black Uhuru – Anthem (1985) – Total Units: 31,000
28. Jimmy Cliff – Cliff Hanger (1986) – Total Units: 29,000
29. Ziggy Marley – Ziggy Marley (2017) – Total Units: 25,000
30. Morgan Heritage – Strictly Roots (2016) – Total Units: 17,000
31. Sly & Robbie – Friends (1999) – Total Units: 15,000
32. Bunny Wailer – Hall Of Fame: A Tribute To Bob Marley’s 50th Anniversary (1997) – Total Units: 11,000
33. Burning Spear – Jah Is Real (2009) – Total Units: 9,000
34. Toots & The Maytals – Got To Be Tough (2021) – Total Units: 9,000
35. Buju Banton – Before The Dawn (2011) – Total Units: 8,000
36. Lee Scratch Perry – Jamaican E.T (2003) – Total Units: 5,000
37. Kabaka Pyramid – The Kalling (2023) – Total Units: 4,700
38. Bunny Wailer – A Tribute To Bob Marley (1991) – Total Units: 1,200
39. Bunny Wailer – Crucial! Roots Classics (1995) – Total Units: Not enough available
40. Julian Marley & Antaeus – Colors Of Royal (2024)- Total Units: Not enough available