Drake and Nicki Minaj Make Top 10 Album Sales List for 2015 So Far

The years change, the names stay the same. Though we're no longer in the golden age of album sales, where Platinum was the norm and Gold a slight embarrassment, Nielsen Soundscan is still an important (or at least oft-cited) measure of commercial viability in music. The data tracking body has released their mid-year sales report, with its four major lists enumerating the top-selling albums, the albums with the most sales purely in physical formats, the top-selling singles and those singles that have been streamed the most online. It's important to note that Soundscan is listing data from this year, but is not limiting the scope to albums and single that were released since January 1. First, the ten best-selling albums in the United States this year, where the final figure represents CD, LP, cassette and digital sales plus "track equivalent albums," where 10 track sales count as one album sale, as do 1,500 track streams.

1. Taylor Swift, 1989, 2,011,000
2. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late, 1,431,000
3. Ed Sheeran, X, 1,428,000
4. Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, 1,402,000
5. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour, 1,296,000
6. Meghan Trainor, Title, 1,209,000
7. Furious 7 soundtrack, 971,000
8. Maroon 5, V, 966,000
9. Nicki Minaj, The Pinkprint, 825,000
10. Fall Out Boy, American Beauty, 813,000

Most observers won't be surprised that the two Young Money artists reign supreme here; each has enjoyed a dominant run at radio, and Drake made headlines earlier this year for cracking several Spotify streaming records. When the figures are adjusted to account for only physical album sales, Nicki drops off of the list, only to be replaced by Kendrick Lamar:

1. Taylor Swift, 1989, 1,328,000
2. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late, 965,000
3. Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour, 788,000
4. Ed Sheeran, X, 763,000
5. Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, 763,000
6. Meghan Trainor, Title, 727,000
7. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly, 627,000
8. Fall Out Boy, American Beauty, 478,000
9. Various artists, NOW 53, 451,000
10. Josh Groban, Stages, 420,000

The best-selling digital songs (as physical singles have largely fallen by the wayside) feature many of the usual suspects as well, with Wiz Khalifa's Furious 7 soundtrack contribution "See You Again" leading the way for hip-hop:

1. Mark Ronson Feat. Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk," 4,883,000
2. Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud," 3,450,000
3. Wiz Khalifa Feat. Charlie Puth, "See You Again," 3,073,000
4. Maroon 5, "Sugar," 2,884,000
5. Ellie Goulding, "Love Me Like You Do," 2,294,000
6. Walk The Moon, "Shut Up and Dance," 2,155,000
7. The Weeknd, "Earned It," 1,966,000
8. Hozier, "Take Me to Church," 1,925,000
9. Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney, "FourFiveSeconds," 1,868,000
10. Fetty Wap, "Trap Queen," 1,864,000

But when it comes to simply streaming, 2015 XXL Freshman Fetty Wap shot almost all the way to the top of the list, with a total approaching the 300 million mark.

1. Mark Ronson Feat. Bruno Mars, "Uptown Funk," 367,987,000
2. Fetty Wap, "Trap Queen," 289,531,000
3. Wiz Khalifa Feat. Charlie Puth, "See You Again," 250,958,000
4. Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud," 225,645,000
5. Maroon 5, "Sugar," 195,197,000
6. The Weeknd, "Earned It," 190,326,000
7. Ellie Goulding, "Love Me Like You Do," 163,799,000
8. Taylor Swift, "Shake It Off," 155,889,000
9. Hozier, "Take Me to Church," 151,454,000
10. Omarion Feat. Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown, "Post to Be," 147,524,000