During his lifetime Johnny Hallyday sold 110 million records, and 10 months after his death his posthumous album is on course to sell a million more, reports the BBC.
In a sales record for France, Mon pays c'est l'amour (My country is love) has sold 780,177 copies in one week.
That number, described by his record company as historic, tops even the US sales for the biggest album of 2018, Drake's Scorpion.
The Canadian rapper sold 732,000 albums in a single week in July.
Last year, Taylor Swift attracted the biggest sales in one week in the US since 2015 with Reputation, with more than 1.2m copies.
Hallyday recorded Mon pays c'est l'amour in 2017 while he was dying of lung cancer.
He died before he was able to put the finishing touches to the album. That task was taken on by his widow, Laeticia.
Described as "vintage Johnny", it is a mix of American-style rock'n roll, blues and country.