The year of 2016 was full of memorable moments. From the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to Pokémon Go it seemed as if there was always something exciting taking place and the music industry was no exception to that trend.
We were gifted with some long awaited concerts tours and overdue albums in Blonde and 25 from Frank Ocean and Adele respectively. In fact, some of the biggest artists in the industry gave their fans something to get excited about. From Kanye West and rising star Chance the rapper to Sia and the English rock band The 1975 some amazing albums were dropped throughout the year.
Drake once again proved that he is still on top of the rap game by securing the number one spot on the list of the top selling albums of 2016. It also debuted at the number one spot on the billboard 200, with 1.04 million album units sold in the first week. Those first week numbers were actually the best that Drake has had in his career thus far and the largest by a male artist in more than three years. It’s safe to say that 2016 was Drake’s year, in fact his 4.14 million total album sales were almost double Adele’s album 25, which was the second highest sold album coming in at 2.37 million. 25 is of course the long awaited and for a time elusive follow up to Adele’s album 21 which came out in 2011. Adele’s 25 is also the top sold album of any female artist of 2016.
Rounding out the top five on the list of the top selling albums of 2016 are Beyoncé’s Lemonade, Rihanna’s Anti and Twenty-one pilot’s Blurryface. These were all extremely successful albums in their own respect. Beyoncé’s Lemonade much like her previous album Beyoncé was dropped with minimal marketing yet debuted at the number one spot on the Billboard chart 200 and sold around 2.19 million copies. Rihanna’s’ Anti was highly anticipated but with the album being constantly pushed back many fans thought it might never come to fruition. Fortunately, on January 28 of 2016 it dropped and eventually reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200 chart selling 1.97 million copies. Blurryface was Twenty-one pilot’s first number one Billboard 200 chart album which sold about 1.73 million copies.
In sixth place is Justin Bieber’s Purpose which sold 1.68 million copies followed by Chris Stapleton’s Traveller of 1.42 million copies then Original Broadway Cast’s Hamilton with 1.33 million. In ninth place is the Suicide Squad album which was made up of various artist like Kehlani, War and Skylar Grey. It sold 1.13 million by the end of the year. Completing the end of the list is Ariana Grande’s album Dangerous Women ending the year with 1.07 million copies.
Overall 2016’s top selling albums had huge names that followed up with huge numbers and it also had some great surprise in Adele finally dropping her 3rd studio album and the well-deserved number one debut on the Billboard 200 for the Twenty-one pilots.
Related topic: Top rated music tours in 2016
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