Best selling consumer products of all time

Creating the most popular product of the year will make consumers and investors happy. But making an all-time bestseller can transform an industry and define a business for decades.
To determine the best-selling products of all-time, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed categories of products widely purchased by consumers and identified individual products that had the highest sales in their category. In some cases, they gathered figures from multiple sources and estimated the final sales figure. In other instances, where one company had a clear market lead, figures reflect data from previous years. | 24/7 Wall Street | By Vince Calio, Thomas C. Frohlich and Alexander E.M. Hess

Category: Toy
> Total sales: 350 million units
> Parent company: Seven Towns Ltd.
 

The Rubik’s Cube remains the top selling single toy of all time with 350 million sold since 1980. The Rubik’s Cube remains so popular that in the decades since its creation, it has spawned entire speedcubing competitions. The toy still has a large fan base, among young and old.

 

  
Category: Vehicle
> Total sales: 40.7 million units

> Parent company: Toyota
 

Toyota announced last month it sold 1.2 million Corollas in 2013, a 5% year-over-year increase. Since its introduction in Japan in 1966 -- the car became available in the U.S. in 1968 -- Toyota has sold more than 40.7 million Corollas, more than any other car model. The Corolla success on the market is likely due to its reliability, relatively low gas mileage, and affordability. 

  

> Category: Video game console
> Total sales: 344 million units
> Parent company: Sony

When Sony released the PlayStation in the United States in 1995, its 32-bit processor was the most powerful available on the console market at the time. Sony sold more than 70 million PlayStations worldwide by the time the PlayStation 2 was released in 2000. The PlayStation 2 also sold very well in the U.S. and abroad. Sony released the PlayStation 3 in 2006, and it sold 80 million units to retailers by November 2013. The latest generation, the PlayStation 4, has been wildly successful thus-far, already selling 7 million units as of April

> Category: Pharmaceutical
> Total sales: $141 billion
> Parent company: Pfizer

Pfizer’s Lipitor is prescribed to lower LDL (or bad) cholesterol -- high levels of bad cholesterol increase the risk of heart disease. Lipitor is classified as a statin, a class of drug used to reduce the risk of heart-related ailments. 

> Category: Tablet
> Total sales: 211 million units
> Parent company: Apple

Despite losing market share in the first quarter, Apple’s iPad is still the best-selling tablet. The iPad held 40% of the tablet market in the first quarter of 2013, but only 32.5% in the first quarter of this year, according to market research firm IDC. Close rival Samsung picked up much of that market share. IDC analyst reported that iPad lost some of its market share

> Category: Video game franchise
> Total sales: 262 million units

   Parent company: Nintendo

Since debuting in 1981 in the popular Donkey Kong arcade game, the Italian plumbers have appeared in 115 titles and in their own cartoon series. According to the company, as of 2011 more than 262 million units of “core” Mario Bros. games have been sold worldwide.

 

> Category: Album
> Total sales: 70 million units
> Parent company: Epic records

Michael Jackson’s Thriller is not only the best-selling album of all time, but is also credited with ushering in the MTV generation, bringing the moonwalk into mainstream culture, and giving Jackson the moniker “The King of Pop.” According to michaeljackson.com, a website run by Sony Music and owned by the Michael Jackson record label, 70 million copies of the album have been sold since its release in 1982.

> Category: Smartphone
> Total sales: 516 million units
> Parent company: Apple


Apple took the smartphone market by a storm when it launched the iPhone in 2007. Despite suggestions from some analysts that the iPhone’s market share has peaked, unit sales remain massive. In its fiscal first and second quarter, the company sold nearly 95 million iPhones, and sales this year are poised to exceed the 150 million mark set in 2013.


As you can see from these all-time best selling products, we like our games and Japanese cars; we like our music, phones and computers. And we are paying big-time for our lousy western diet.