Eminem Nabs Best-Selling Regular and Digital Album Honors for 2010

Thursday, January 06, 2011
By Chris Richburg
allhiphop .com

The past year proved to be a rewarding one for Eminem, with his latest album Recovery becoming the best selling album in the United States for 2010.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, 3.42 million copies of Recovery were sold last year.

In addition, the offering became 2010’s top-selling digital album with 852,000 downloads.

The end of the year recognition caps off a stellar year for Recovery, which became Eminem’s sixth number one album on the Billboard 200 chart after selling 741,000 copies in its first week of release.

A portion of the offering "s success can be attributed to a slew of popular singles that include “Not Afraid,” “Love the Way You Lie” featuring Rihanna and “No Love” featuring Lil Wayne.

Recovery’s showing in 2010 marked the latest musical achievement for Eminem, who last earned top-selling album honors in 2002 with 7.61 million copies of The Eminem Show sold.

The multiple appearances marked the first time an artist has had the top-selling album in more than one year since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, Billboard.com reports.

The last rapper to garner the top-selling album of the year was Lil Wayne, who sold 2.87 million copies of Tha Carter III in 2008.

Right behind Eminem with the second best-selling album of 2010 was hitmaking country group Lady Antebellum "s Need You Now with 3.09 million copies sold.

Taylor Swift netted the number three top selling release with 2.96 million copies sold of her newest album, Speak Now.

Rounding out the 2010 "s top 10 were Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0 (No. 4; 2.32 million copies sold), Susan Boyle "s The Gift(No. 5; 1.85 million copies sold), Lady Gaga "s The Fame (No. 6; 1.59 million copies sold), Sade "s Soldier of Love (No. 7; 1.30 million copies sold), Drake "s Thank Me Later (No. 8; 1.27 million copies sold), Usher "s Raymond v. Raymond (No. 9; 1.18 million copies sold) and Ke$ha "s Animal (No. 10; 1.14 million copies sold).

Besides having biggest selling album of the previous year, Eminem’s good fortune carried over in to digital singles with “Love the Way You Lie” surpassing the 4 million mark in 2010 with 4.25 million downloads.

The single ranked as the number three top digital song, joining the number seven-sitting “Not Afraid” (3.41 million downloads) in the digital top 10.

Katy Perry’s collaboration with Snoop Dogg, “California Gurls,” was the top digital song of 2010 with 4.40 million downloads.