Thriller was released on November 30, 1982, and sold one million copies worldwide per week at its peak. Seven singles were released from the album, including "The Girl Is Mine," which was followed by the hit single "Billie Jean," which made Thriller a chart-topper. The title track, "Thriller," was released as a single and also became a hit internationally. Thriller was mostly well received by critics. A four-star Rolling Stone review by Christopher Connelly described it as "a zesty LP" with a "harrowing, dark message." Best of all, with a pervasive confidence infusing the album as a whole, Thriller suggests that Mr. Jackson's evolution as an artist is far from finished." Robert Christgau published a positive (A-) graded overview of the album a few days before its release. He acknowledged that there were "fillers" on the record but still labeled it "almost classic." He expressed the opinion that "Beat It" was the album's best track. "Thriller was recognized as the world's best-selling album on February 7, 1984, when it was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records. It is one of only three albums to remain in the top ten of the Billboard 200 for a full year, and spent 37 weeks at number one out of the 80 consecutive weeks it was in the top ten. The album was also the first of three to have seven Billboard Hot 100 top ten singles, and was the only album to be the best-seller of two years (1983-1984) in the US. On August 21, 2009 Thriller was certified 29x Multi-Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least 29 million copies in the US. The album topped the charts in many countries, sold 3.7 million copies in the UK, 2.5 million in Japan and went 15x Platinum in Australia. Still popular today, Thriller sells an estimated 130,000 copies in the US per year; it reached number two in the US Catalog charts in February 2003 and number 39 in the UK in March 2007. As of 2010, the album is estimated as having sold approximately 65-110 million copies worldwide.

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