Kanye West Just Passed 250 Million RIAA-Certified Units. No American Has Done That Before.
The Recording Industry Association of America updated 69 titles from Kanye West's catalog on July 17, pushing his career total to 271 million certified units and making him the first American artist to cross 250 million in the organization's 72-year history of tracking sales and streaming equivalents.
The new total puts West, who now records under the name Ye, second on the RIAA's all-time list behind only Drake, a Canadian artist. Taylor Swift, who had held the top spot among American artists with 247.5 million certified units, now sits third.
Among the individual certifications, "Stronger" and "Heartless" each climbed to 14-times platinum, up from seven-times platinum for "Heartless" in the RIAA's last count. "Gold Digger" moved from eight-times to 13-times platinum. Full albums were certified as well: "The College Dropout" reached six million units, "Graduation" eight million, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" five million, "808s & Heartbreak" four million and "Yeezus" three million. West's 2019 album "Jesus Is King" received a new platinum certification.
The update also gave West 117 gold-certified singles in the U.S., more than any artist in RIAA history - a record previously held by NBA YoungBoy.
RIAA certifications combine physical sales, digital downloads and streaming-equivalent units, with albums crossing into gold status at 500,000 units and platinum at 1 million. Because labels submit catalogs for review rather than having every release audited automatically, large jumps like this one typically reflect years of accumulated streams being certified in a single batch rather than a sudden surge in new listening. The RIAA's count also only credits an artist when they're billed as the lead act, meaning any of West's guest features on other artists' tracks aren't included in his total.
West's new album "Bully" has not yet been submitted for certification. He recently released a deluxe edition with two additional tracks, "OK" featuring Don Toliver and "MISSION CONTROL," alongside new mixes of the album's original songs.
The certification news lands roughly six weeks after West performed to a reported 120,000 fans at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium as part of his "YE Live in Istanbul" tour stop, one of several international dates this year that have run alongside the catalog reassessment now reflected in the RIAA's figures.
