Rihanna Crowned Digital Sales Queen

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

Rihanna had a successful run in 2011. How successful? Well, the Barbadian songbird sold over 47 million downloads last year of all her hit songs. This astounding feat makes her the biggest-selling digital artist of all time, according to Nielsen Soundscan as reported by RihannaDaily.

The ‘Talk That Talk’ singer beat out some notable artists to reach the No. 1 plateau. Pop-rap group Black Eyed Peas finished at No. 2 with 42.4 million downloads, followed closely by Eminem in third place with 42.2 million downloads. Pop starlets Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift round out the top five with 42 million and 41 million downloads, respectively.

However, BEP can pat themselves on the back for having the biggest-selling digital single of all time — ‘I Gotta Feeling,’ which has sold 7.68 million copies. Gaga’s 2008 hit ‘Poker Face’ is at No. 2 with 6.5 million tunes downloaded. Oddly, none of Rihanna’s songs are even in the Top 10 on that list.

Meanwhile, RiRi’s ‘We Found Love’ (Featuring Calvin Harris) is holding steady at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart after spending eight weeks at the top. The song is selling briskly as it jumped from No. 3 to No. 2 this week on the Digital Song tally. So far, Rihanna has moved 319,000 downloads of ‘We Found Love.”

Congratulations, Rihanna!