Changes leads the available comparable sales ranking: the Official Charts Company reported 597,000 combined UK sales, ahead of Ghetto Gospel at 560,000 and California Love at 319,000. These are historical UK figures—not worldwide totals or a ranking of how much each song earned.
What was Tupac’s biggest hit by reported sales?
In its 2017 retrospective, the Official Charts Company called Changes Tupac’s biggest-selling single in the UK. It reported 597,000 combined sales. The same retrospective ranked Ghetto Gospel second, with 560,000, and California Love third, with 319,000.
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2Pac Greatest Hits | $19.17 | Buy on Amazon |
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2Pac Greatest Hits | Buy on Amazon | |
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The Best Of 2Pac - Part 1: Thug | $11.89 | Buy on Amazon |
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Me Against the World | $9.78 | Buy on Amazon |
The figures are useful for comparing these three singles in one market and under the source’s combined-sales measure. They do not establish which Tupac song generated the most revenue worldwide. The retrospective’s figures are historical, and its reported components reflect the source’s methodology at the time.
| Song | Reported UK combined sales | UK chart context |
|---|---|---|
| Changes | 597,000 | Peaked at No. 3 |
| Ghetto Gospel | 560,000 | Reached No. 1 for three weeks in 2005 |
| California Love | 319,000 | Peaked at No. 6 |
Source for sales and chart positions: Official Charts Company’s Tupac singles retrospective. A chart peak describes the highest position reached; it is not a sales total. That distinction helps explain why Ghetto Gospel topped the UK chart while Changes leads this retrospective’s combined-sales comparison.
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#1 Best Overall
- 2Pac's Greatest Hits is the posthumous collection originally released in November 1998
What makes up the reported sales figures?
The retrospective breaks down some of the totals into physical copies, downloads and streams. Those components are not a measure of money paid to Tupac’s estate, label or songwriters; they describe the units and streaming activity included in the chart publisher’s combined-sales figure.
| Song | Components listed by Official Charts | Combined total |
|---|---|---|
| Changes | 284,000 physical copies; 180,000 downloads; 13.3 million streams since 2014 | 597,000 |
| Ghetto Gospel | 229,000 physical singles; 221,000 downloads; 11 million streams | 560,000 |
| California Love | 6.4 million streams included; the retrospective does not list comparable physical-copy and download components in the cited material | 319,000 |
Source: Official Charts Company, 2017 retrospective. The figures should be read using the publisher’s labels and time frame, rather than treated as interchangeable units or converted into estimated royalties.
Rank #2
- 2Pac Records
Why “highest-grossing” is not established
“Highest-grossing” usually implies a ranking by revenue. The available figures are combined-sales statistics for the UK, not song-by-song worldwide earnings. They do not disclose how much money a track generated across sales, streaming, licensing and other uses, or how receipts were divided among rights holders.
Tupac’s overall commercial success does not fill that gap. His official website says he has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, an artist-level figure rather than a total for any one song. 2Pac’s official website also points to his Greatest Hits collection; an Interscope release announcement described it as a two-disc, 24-track retrospective certified Diamond and listed Changes, Dear Mama and California Love among its tracks. That album-level certification does not rank individual song sales.
Rank #3
- The Best Of 2Pac - Part 1: Thug includes nine classics, plus one previously unreleased track ("Resist The Temptation") and a new remix of "Dear Mama" featuring Anthony Hamilton
Other Tupac tracks—including Dear Mama, How Do U Want It, I Ain’t Mad at Cha, Until the End of Time and Do for Love—appear in the Official Charts history. Those entries provide chart-history context, but the cited material does not give them comparable combined-sales totals for this ranking. See the Official Charts archive.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to interpret the ranking
- For the available UK sales comparison: Changes is first, followed by Ghetto Gospel and California Love.
- For UK chart peak: Ghetto Gospel reached No. 1, while Changes peaked at No. 3 and California Love at No. 6.
- For worldwide song revenue: the sources cited here do not establish a comparable lifetime ranking.
These measures answer different questions. A chart position shows how a single performed in a chart; combined sales represent the chart publisher’s reported sales-and-streaming measure; and neither one alone reveals the song’s total revenue.
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