News

No surprises here: Lil Wayne 2008's biggest artist

12:19 p.m. · January 5, 2009 · by Andrew Winistorfer

Nielsen released their year-end sales tallies last week, and there were very few surprises: Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III was the year's biggest album, outselling Coldplay's Viva La Vida by 700,000 copies. The biggest surprise is that Taylor Swift's Fearless, released in November, leap-frogged AC/DC and Kid Rock to claim number three. Swift's debut album was also in the top ten, coming in at number 6. 

Nielsen also compiled the sales totals of digital songs, and Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" took the top spot with nearly three-and-a-half million downloads. Lil Wayne's "Lollipop" came in at number two.

Nielsen is reporting that overall album sales (including digital sales) are down 8%, while vinyl sales are up a whopping 89%. Here are the charts for biggest albums and songs of 2008, according to Nielsen:

DIGITAL SONGS
1. Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love" (3.42 million)
2. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (3.161 million)
3. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, "Low" (2.979 million)
4. Katy Perry, "I Kissed A Girl" (2.977 million)
5. Coldplay, "Viva La Vida" (2.914 million)
6. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (2.766 million)
7. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (2.682 million)
8. Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours" (2.655 million)
9. Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, "No Air" (2.612 million)
10. Pink, "So What" (2.59 million)

[via Idolator]