The Gaon Album Chart was a South Korean record chart that ranked the best-selling albums and EPs in South Korea. It was part of the Gaon Music Chart, which launched in February 2010. The data are compiled by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Music Content Industry Association based upon weekly and monthly physical album sales by six major South Korean distributors: LOEN Entertainment, S.M. Entertainment, Sony Music Korea, Warner Music Korea, Universal Music and Mnet Media.

In 2011, there were 44 albums which reached number one on the weekly chart. Girls' Generation, Big Bang, and JYJ topped the chart with three different albums each, more than any other act. CNBLUE, Kim Hyun-joong, and Super Junior each had two number one albums on the chart. The longest chart run on the weekly chart at number one was Girls' Generation's The Boys and Super Junior's Mr. Simple; both spent four weeks at the top of the chart. On the monthly chart, TVXQ and Big Bang had the most album number-ones, with two each. Girls' Generation's The Boys topped the monthly chart for three consecutive months from October to December.

Overall, Girls' Generation's The Boys was Gaon's best-selling album of 2011, selling 385,348 copies.

Weekly charts

Key

†	Indicates South Korean best-selling album of 2011

Week	Album	Artist	Ref.
December 25, 2010	GD & TOP	GD & TOP
January 1	The 1st Asia Tour Concert Into the New World	Girls' Generation
January 8	Keep Your Head Down	TVXQ
January 15
January 22	VVIP	Seungri
January 29	Secret Garden OST	Various artists
February 5	Only One	U-KISS
February 12	Kolleen Selects	Various artists
February 19	The Beginning (Worldwide Concert In Seoul Edition)	JYJ
February 26	Kolleen Selects	Various artists
March 5	Tonight	Big Bang
March 12	My Girl	Kim Hyung-jun
March 19	Before U Go	TVXQ
March 26	First Step	CNBLUE
April 2
April 9	Big Bang Special Edition	Big Bang
April 16
April 23	Pinocchio	f(x)
April 30	First Step ＋ Thank You	CNBLUE
May 7	Feel Brand New	Eru
May 14	Let It Go	Heo Young-saeng
May 21	Mr. Taxi / Run Devil Run	Girls' Generation
May 28	Return	F.T. Island
June 4	Fiction and Fact	Beast
June 11	Break Down	Kim Hyun-joong
June 18	2011 Big Bang Live Concert 'BIG SHOW'	Big Bang
June 25	Hands Up	2PM
July 2	Infinity Challenge West Coast Highway	Various artists
July 9	Miss Ripley OST	Various artists
July 16	Mona Lisa	MBLAQ
July 23	Infinity Challenge West Coast Highway	Various artists
July 30	2NE1 2nd Mini Album	2NE1
August 6	Mr. Simple	Super Junior
August 13
August 20	I Am Singer 1	Various artists
August 27	Mr. Simple	Super Junior
September 3
September 10	STEP	Kara
September 17	Vol. 7 The First	Sung Si-kyung
September 24	A-Cha	Super Junior
October 1	Paradise	Infinite
October 8	In Heaven	JYJ
October 15	Lucky	Kim Hyun-joong
October 22	The Boys†	Girls' Generation
October 29
November 5
November 12	Wonder World	Wonder Girls
November 19	KimdongrYULE	Kim Dong-ryool
November 26	In Heaven (Special Edition)	JYJ
December 3	Last Fantasy	IU
December 10	The Boys †	Girls' Generation
December 17	2011 Winter SMTown – The Warmest Gift	SM Town
December 24	You're Beautiful OST	Jang Keun-suk

Monthly charts