The classic 2016 single “Goosebumps” by Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar has become the most successful rap song in history, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA officially certified the song 17 times platinum, signifying more than 17 million units sold in the U.S. This surpasses Drake’s “God’s Plan,” which previously held the record with 16 times platinum certification.
A single platinum certification from the RIAA represents 1 million equivalent units sold. The RIAA calculates a unit as either one album sale, 10 permanent track downloads from an album or 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album. The Scott-Lamar collaboration is now tied with three other songs across all genres: Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ “Old Town Road,” Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” and Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey.”
The song’s certification is two steps behind the current highest-certified track, Post Malone and Swae Lee’s 20-times platinum single “Sunflower.” Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” are also ahead of “goosebumps,” both sitting at 18-times platinum.
Scott’s “Goosebumps” was originally released as a single in December 2016 from his album Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight. It was certified platinum in March 2017, but the track peaked at only No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
