*Chris Brown has reached a new career peak, officially becoming the best-selling Black male vocalist in RIAA history and surpassing a record long held by Michael Jackson. According to PARADE, his latest sales totals place him ahead of the music legend in U.S. units, a shift driven in large part by the continued influence of streaming.
Recent RIAA updates reported Brown’s cumulative American sales at about 163 million, moving him beyond Jackson’s 158.5 million. The news arrived on Dec. 1, when the organization announced a new wave of certifications tied to Brown’s early hits and debut album. Among the additions were multi-platinum awards for “Run It,” “Yo (Excuse Me Miss),” “Say Goodbye,” and “Gimme That,” as well as new benchmarks for tracks such as “Poppin’,” “Ya Man Ain’t Me,” and “Ain’t No Way.”
Within the U.S. market, Brown now stands third among all male vocalists overall, trailing only Elvis Presley and Luke Combs. Despite this domestic surge, Jackson maintains his position as the top-selling artist worldwide, with more than 1 billion records reported across global markets.
Jackson recently added another milestone to his résumé through a major chart resurgence. “Thriller” climbed back into the Billboard Hot 100’s top 10 on the chart dated Nov. 15, making Jackson the only performer to secure top-10 entries in six different decades—the 1970s through the 2020s.
The seasonal spike around Halloween boosted the song to 14 million streams and 9.3 million in radio audience during the October 31–November 6 tracking week, echoing its original chart success in 1984. This renewed momentum pushed “Thriller” beyond the chart longevity previously achieved by “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” each of which logged 25 weeks on the Hot 100.