| Mariah Carey albums discography | |
|---|---|
| Carey at the release party of her album The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) | |
| Studio albums | 16 |
| EPs | 3 |
| Soundtrack albums | 2 |
| Compilation albums | 7 |
| Remix albums | 1 |
| Anniversary albums | 6 |
American singer Mariah Carey has released sixteen studio albums, two soundtrack albums, seven compilation albums, three extended plays, one remix album, and six anniversary albums. Carey is one of the best-selling musical artists of all-time, having sold over 220 million records. [note 1]
After signing with Columbia Records in the late 1980s, Carey released her eponymous debut album in June 1990 which peaked atop the US Billboard 200 and went on to be certified nine-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This was followed by Emotions (1991) and her first extended play, MTV Unplugged (1992) which both peaked top four in the US. Carey released her third studio album Music Box (1993) to both critical and commercial success. The album topped the charts in multiple countries, went on to become one of the best-selling albums of all time, and was certified diamond by the RIAA. [note 2] This was followed by her first holiday album Merry Christmas (1994) which became one of the best selling holiday albums and was also certified diamond by the RIAA. Throughout the latter half of the 1990s, Carey went on to release a string of successful albums including the diamond certified album, Daydream (1995), Butterfly (1997), and her first compilation album, #1's (1998). The latter is the best-selling album in Japan by a non-Asian artist. [note 3] In 1999, Carey released Rainbow which debuted at number two in the US and became her first studio album since 1994 to not reach the top position.
By 2000, Carey parted with Columbia and signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records, releasing her eighth studio album Glitter (2001) which also served as the soundtrack to the film of same name. Both the album and film became a commercial and critical failure, primarily due to its controversies and setbacks. After being bought out of Virgin, Carey signed a new deal with Island Records and released Charmbracelet (2002) to moderate success. During this time, both a second compilation, Greatest Hits (2001) and her first remix album, The Remixes (2003), was released as part of her contract with Columbia. After a musical hiatus, Carey made a comeback with the hip-hop and R&B-inspired album, The Emancipation of Mimi (2005) which received critical and commercial success, debuting atop the Billboard 200, and becoming both the best-selling album of 2005 in the US, and one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century. This was followed by E=MC² (2008) which also debuted atop the chart. She also released the compilation album The Ballads (2008) which debuted at number ten in the US. Carey went on to release Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel (2009), her second holiday album Merry Christmas II You (2010), and Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse (2014) to varying commercial and critical success, but all debuting top four in the US.
In 2015, Carey signed with Epic Records, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment. She released both the compilation album, #1 to Infinity (2015) and soundtrack All I Want for Christmas Is You (2017). She released her fifteenth studio album, Caution (2018) to critical praise, with critics deeming it another mini-musical comeback following a period of moderate success. In 2020, she released a compilation album The Rarities (2020) featuring unreleased songs, B-sides and live performances. She also released an accompanying soundtrack to her Christmas special Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special (2020). During the early 2020s, Carey released various anniversary editions for her albums including that for Butterfly, Music Box, Rainbow, Merry Christmas, and The Emancipation of Mimi featuring remixes and unreleased songs. By 2025, Carey had signed with the media company Gamma and released her sixteenth studio album, Here for It All (2025).
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [8] | AUS [9] | CAN [10] | FRA [11] | GER [12] | JPN [13] | NL [14] | NZ [15] | SWI [16] | UK [17] | ||||
| Mariah Carey | 1 | 6 | 1 | — | 24 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 15 | 6 | |||
| Emotions | 4 | 8 | 6 | — | 46 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 4 | |||
| Music Box |
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Merry Christmas |
| 3 | 2 | 4 | 44 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 32 | ||
| Daydream | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Butterfly | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Rainbow | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 8 | |||
| Glitter | 7 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 10 | |||
| Charmbracelet | 3 | 42 | 30 | 12 | 32 | 4 | 30 | — | 9 | 52 | |||
| The Emancipation of Mimi |
| 1 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 9 | 7 | ||
| E=MC² |
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 3 | ||
| Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 27 | 9 | 26 | 25 | 18 | 23 | ||
| Merry Christmas II You |
| 4 | 27 | 14 | 82 | 77 | 24 | 52 | — | — | 101 |
|
|
| Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse | 3 | 5 | 8 | 26 | 27 | 25 | 14 | 11 | 16 | 14 |
| ||
| Caution |
| 5 | 15 | 15 | 71 | 67 | 30 | 38 | 40 | 35 | 40 |
| |
| Here for It All |
| 7 | 19 [116] | — | 50 | 37 | 33 | 53 | — | 18 | 31 |
| |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or was not released | |||||||||||||
| Title | Extended play details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [8] | AUS [9] | CAN [10] | FRA [11] | GER [12] | JPN [13] | NL [14] | NZ [15] | SWI [16] | UK [17] | ||||
| MTV Unplugged |
| 3 | 7 | 6 | 22 | 30 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 3 | ||
| Valentines | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| The Live Debut – 1990 |
| — [AZ] | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or was not released | |||||||||||||
| Title | Soundtrack album details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [8] | CAN [10] | IRE [123] | JPN [13] | SWI [16] | UK Dig. [17] | ||||||||
| All I Want for Christmas Is You |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| Mariah Carey's Magical Christmas Special |
| 100 | 99 | 47 | 100 | 37 | 18 | ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or was not released | |||||||||||||
| Title | Compilation album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [8] | AUS [9] | CAN [10] | FRA [11] | GER [12] | JPN [13] | NL [14] | NZ [15] | SWI [16] | UK [17] | ||||
| #1's |
| 4 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 15 | 13 | 3 | 10 | ||
| Greatest Hits [BE] |
| 52 | 47 | 27 | 3 | 36 | 3 | 37 | 11 | 17 | 7 | ||
| The Ballads |
| 10 | 79 | — | 39 | — | 19 | 5 | 19 | — | 13 |
|
|
| Playlist: The Very Best of Mariah Carey |
| — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| #1 to Infinity | 29 | 18 | — | 132 | — | 19 | 44 | 25 | 49 | 8 |
|
| |
| Japan Best |
| — | — | — | — | — | 53 | — | — | — | — | ||
| The Rarities |
| 31 | 16 | 80 | 70 | 65 | 24 | 47 | — | 29 | 44 | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or was not released | |||||||||||||
| Title | Remix album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | Certifications | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [8] | AUS [9] | FRA [11] | JPN [13] | NL [14] | NZ [15] | SWI [16] | UK [17] | ||||
| The Remixes | 26 | 78 | 60 | 95 | 99 | 36 | 69 | 35 |
| ||
| Title | Reissue details | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPN [13] | SPN [143] | AUS Vinyl [144] | ||
| Merry Christmas (Anniversary Deluxe Edition) |
| — | — | — |
| Butterfly: 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition |
| — | — | — |
| Music Box: 30th Anniversary Edition |
| 45 | 42 | 14 |
| Rainbow: 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition |
| — | — | — |
| Merry Christmas: 30th Anniversary Edition |
| — | — | — |
| The Emancipation of Mimi (20th Anniversary Edition) |
| — [BN] | — | — |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart in that territory. | ||||
| Title | Box set details | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 12s |
|
|
| Mariah Carey / Emotions / Music Box |
| |
| MTV Unplugged / Daydream / Butterfly |
| |
| Music Box / Rainbow |
|
|
| Daydream / Butterfly |
|
|
| Music Box / Butterfly |
|
|
| E=MC2 Adventure Box |
| |
| 3CD Collector's Set |
| |
| Daydream / Mariah Carey |
|
|
| Emotions / Rainbow / Butterfly |
|
|
| Charmbracelet / The Emancipation of Mimi / E=MC2 |
|
|
| Charmbracelet / The Emancipation of Mimi |
|
|
| E=MC2 / Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel |
|
|
It has sold 15 million copies worldwide and over 900,000 copies in Japan.
A masterpiece showing 8 million copies worldwide and more than 1 million copies in Japan
Mariah Carey albums, 'Music Box,' which has done 600,000 copies, and 'Merry Christmas,' which did 200,000 units.
...2.3 million copies sold in Japan.
(album "Merry Christmas" ... [has cumulative sales] of 2.8 million)
Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas continues to be a strong seller in the 2000s with 311,000 sales since the turn of the century
Over 25 million copies worldwide have been sold so far, and 2.2 million copies have been sold in Japan.