Nielsen has announced the United States' best-selling albums of 2015. Representing from the hip hop sector are The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness at #5, Drake's IYRTITL at #6, and Fetty Wap's self-titled debut album at #10.
Meanwhile, Adele's 25 absolutely obliterated the competition, selling more than twice as many copies as any other album despite having been released at the end of November.
25 sold 8.01 million equivalent albums, with 7.44 million coming in the form of traditional album sales and the rest from track equivalent albums and streaming equivalent albums. By comparison, Taylor Swift's 1989, the second-best selling album of the year, sold 3.1 million units.
Nielsen reports that album sales were up 15 percent from 2014. Pure album sales fell 6 percent and track equivalent album sales fell 13 percent -- the spike in overall sales can be traced to the rapidly increasing popularity in streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora.
Below are the best-selling albums of 2015, tracking from Dec. 29, 2014 through Dec. 31, 2015.
1. Adele, 25 - 8,008,000
2. Taylor Swift, 1989 - 3,105,000
3. Justin Bieber, Purpose - 2,225,000
4. Ed Sheeran, X - 2,206,000
5. The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness - 2,045,000
6. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late - 1,919,000
7. Meghan Trainor, Title - 1,795,000
8. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour - 1,741,000
9. Sam Hunt, Montevallo - 1,378,000
10. Fetty Wap, Fetty Wap - 1,295,000
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