Top artists and songs of the 2000s (By sales and awards)
Album Sales
According to information collected on Rate Your Music, the following table documents which albums sold the most copies in the 2000s. Interestingly, none of the top ten albums were released later than 2004. In fact, six of ten were from 2000 alone. This is likely due to the extreme decline in physical music purchases following the launch of iTunes and music pirating websites like Napster and Limewire.
Ranking | Album, Artist | Copies Sold |
---|---|---|
10 | Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent | 8.13 million |
9 | Country Grammar, Nelly | 8.48 million |
8 | Oops!...I Did It Again, Britney Spears | 9.20 million |
7 | Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park | 10.03 million |
6 | Confessions, Usher | 10.04 million |
5 | The Eminem Show, Eminem | 10.09 million |
4 | The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem | 10.62 million |
3 | Come Away With Me, Norah Jones | 11.02 million |
2 | No Strings Attached, *NSYNC | 11.16 million |
1 | 1, The Beatles | 12.7 million |
Thanks to Billboard, we do have information on the top-selling album of each year. However, it's worth mentioning that six of those albums didn't even hit $5 million in sales.
The top-selling albums of each year in the 2000s are as follows:
- 2000: No Strings Attached, NSYNC
- 2001: Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park
- 2002: The Eminem Show, Eminem
- 2003: Get Rich or Die Tryin', 50 Cent
- 2004: Confessions, Usher
- 2005: The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey
- 2006: High School Musical, Various
- 2007: Noël, Josh Groban
- 2008: Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
- 2009: Fearless, Taylor Swift
The next slide shows what music had the most success judging by radio airplay and digital sales.