The same Eagles album that became the RIAA's first-ever Platinum record in 1976 jumped to 38× Platinum in 2018 — passing Thriller.

On August 20, 2018, the RIAA certified the Eagles' *Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975* at 38× Platinum — the same album that, 42 years earlier, became the first record ever to earn a Platinum certification.

The Eagles' *Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975* has a strange distinction in American music: it is both the beginning of a system and, decades later, the top of it. On August 20, 2018, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album at 38× Platinum, enough to pass Michael Jackson's *Thriller* and reclaim the title of best-selling album in RIAA history. The last time anyone had tallied it, back in 2006, it stood at 29× Platinum.

That number landed exactly 42 years, nearly to the season, after the same album made history for an entirely different reason.

Why this album keeps breaking records

On February 24, 1976, *Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975* became the first album the RIAA ever certified Platinum. The Platinum award was brand new — the trade group had created it to recognize a million units sold, a tier above the Gold certification that had been around since 1958. The Eagles' compilation got there first. The RIAA's own 60th-anniversary timeline, published in 2023, still lists the album as the organization's inaugural Platinum record.

So the thing that set the ceiling in 1976 is the thing that keeps raising it. A greatest-hits package assembled from the band's first four albums — anchored by "Take It Easy," "Desperado," "Best of My Love," and "One of These Nights" — turned out to be exactly the kind of record that never stops selling. It sits in grocery-store bins and streaming playlists alike, acquired by one generation after another who may not own a single other Eagles album.

How the RIAA counts to 38

The leap from 29× to 38× did not happen overnight, even if it looks that way on paper. Certifications are requests, not continuous meters: a label has to ask the RIAA to audit sales and update the plaque. The 12-year gap between the 2006 tally and the 2018 announcement means a decade of accumulated sales got recognized in a single stroke. Each "times Platinum" represents a million certified units, so 38× Platinum means at least 38 million.

The modern count also folds in streaming. The RIAA now converts on-demand audio and video plays into album-equivalent units, which is part of why older catalog titles have surged in the certification ledger over the past decade.

The Associated Press, in reporting by Mesfin Fekadu carried by Billboard, the Washington Times, and others on August 20, 2018, confirmed the 38× figure and noted that it pushed the Eagles past *Thriller*, then certified at 33×. Billboard's own certification-history list — compiled for its roundup of "Double Diamond" albums — pins the key dates precisely: Gold and Platinum on February 24, 1976, and the 38× update, which the RIAA styles "Triple Diamond," on August 20, 2018.

One vivid detail about the timing: the 2018 certification came the same week the surviving Eagles were out on a tour that had been reshaped by the death of founding member Glenn Frey in 2016, with Frey's son Deacon and country singer Vince Gill filling in. The record that started it all got its biggest plaque just as the band was learning how to go on without the man who helped build it.

What's still worth arguing about

Here is the seam. The RIAA's certification is a measure of units shipped and certified at a label's request — not a real-time sales scoreboard. *Thriller* has since been re-certified higher, and whether the Eagles or Jackson truly sits atop "best-selling album of all time" depends entirely on which album's label last filed paperwork and which metric you trust. Global sales estimates, which the RIAA does not cover, tell a different story again, often placing *Thriller* well ahead worldwide.

So the fact is clean: on August 20, 2018, the first Platinum album became a 38× Platinum album, and on that day it passed *Thriller* in the RIAA's ledger. Whether it still holds the crown is a question the certifications themselves keep reopening.