In 2025, the RIAA certified Metallica’s 1991 album 2× Diamond for U.S. shipments.
The certification marked shipments of more than twenty million copies in the United States. It made the album the first release in the SoundScan era to pass that milestone, adding a major modern sales distinction to a record already recognized as one of the best-selling albums in U.S. history.
The achievement is separate from the album’s worldwide sales totals. Metallica has sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, while the RIAA certification measures U.S. shipments under the organization’s certification system. Those figures describe different markets and should not be treated as interchangeable.
The album’s longevity helped produce this result. It never sold fewer than 1,000 copies in a week and continued to attract listeners decades after its 1991 release. The 2025 certification also explains why older descriptions may list only a Diamond certification: the newer 2× Diamond status reflects the later milestone, not a different album or reissue.