Metallica Score Best-Selling Album, Beating Shania Twain

Selling 15,490,000 copies with their eponymous album, Metallica become the first hard rock act to top Nielsen SoundScan's 'release to date' chart.

This week, one of Metallica's albums is named the top-selling album in the Nielsen SoundScan era. Their 1991 self-titled studio album "Metallica" has sold more than 15,490,000 copies, surpassing previously best-selling effort, Shania Twain's "Come on Over" which pulled in around 15,487,000 units to date.

This achievement gives the band the No. 1 position on Nielsen's "release to date" chart and makes them the first hard rock act to top the list as the previous champs were ranging from mainstream pop, rock and country musics. Whitney Houston's "The Bodyguard [Original Soundtrack]" ruled the chart in 1991, Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" topped the list in 1996, and Shania Twain's "Come on Over" led the pack in 2001.

Beside pulling in an impressive selling number, "Metallica" album has also earned the James Hetfield-fronted band a Golden Gramophone for Best Metal Performance with Vocal at 1992 Grammy Awards. At the same year moreover, they took home Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Video prize from MTV Video Music Awards, thanks to one of its singles "Enter Sandman".