We knew it but its always good to see the numbers roll in. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III” is 2008s top-selling album ! “Tha Carter III” moved 2.88 million copies to grab the title but according to Billboard this is the first time that the year’s top selling album has sold less than 3 million copies ! Regardless, Lil Wayne’s blazing effort, featuring the singles “Lollipop,” “A Milli” and “Got Money,” ranks #1 beating out Coldplay, Taylor Swift, AC/DC and Kid Rock. The top 5 including Lil Wayne, features (in order) Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” (2.15 million); Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” (2.11 million) (correction: this is Taylor Swift’s sophomore album); Kid Rock’s “Rock N Roll Jesus” (2 million); and AC/DC’s “Black Ice” (1.92). Surprisingly, Taylor Swift and her fellow late fall release partner Beyonce (I Am…Sasha Fierce) moved enough albums to top artists like Usher, Mariah Carey and Ne-Yo who released albums earlier this year. Before we get down to Beyonce’s numbers, T.I.’s “Paper Trail,” featuring “Whatever U Like” and “Live Your Life,” made #8 on the list with 1.52 million copies sold ! Now to Beyonce’s “I Am…Sasha Fierce”: according to Nielsen Soundscan, the “Halo” singer’s album moved 1.46 million copies since its debut in November making the former ‘Goldmember’ star’s debut a hot shot in comparison to albums released earlier in the year. The same can be said for Taylor Swift who also released an album during the same time frame, however, Swift moved 2.11 million copies. Nielsen Soundscan reports that 428.4 million albums were sold in 2008, down from 2007 where 500.5 million albums were sold. Digital downloads of albums accounted for 65.79 million copies versus 50.01 million in 2007. Digital Singles however, outnumbered album sales as they totaled in at 1.07 billion according to Nielsen SoundScan. Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” is responsible for 3.37 million of those 1.07 billion downloads.
