Justin Timberlake’s ’20/20 Experience’ Tops 2013 Album Sales
In a year of declining album sales, Justin Timberlake‘s The 20/20 Experience was the biggest selling album of 2013, according to Billboard. A total of 2.43 million copies sold. While the ranking is certainly an honor for Timberlake, it’s less flattering for the record industry as a whole: The 20/20 Experience was the only album to sell over 2 million in 2013, which marks the lowest top-seller in SoundScan’s 22 years of tracking sales. The previous low came in 2008, with Lil Wayne‘s Tha Carter III selling 2.87 million copies.
Check Out Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2013
Rounding out the top 10 was Eminem‘s acclaimed The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (1.73 million), Luke Bryan‘s Crash My Party (1.52 million), Imagine Dragons‘ Night Visions (1.4 million), Bruno Mars‘ Unorthodox Jukebox (just under 1.4 million), Florida Georgia Line‘s Here’s to the Good Times (1.35 million), Drake‘s Nothing Was the Same (1.34 million), Beyoncé‘s surprise LP Beyoncé (1.3 million), Blake Shelton‘s Based on a True Story (1.11 million) and Jay Z’s app-backed Magna Carta…Holy Grail (1.1 million).
The top single sales were led by a different set of artists. Robin Thicke‘s ubiquitous “Blurred Lines” came in at Number One with 6.5 million sales. Mackemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop” was a close second, with 6.15 million. The other top sellers were Imagine Dragons (“Radioactive,” 5.5 million), Florida Georgia Line (“Cruise,” 4.69 million), Lorde (“Royals,” 4.42 million), Katy Perry (“Roar,” 4.41 million), P!nk featuring Nate Ruess (“Just Give Me a Reason,” 4.32 million), another from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (“Can’t Hold Us,” 4.26 million), Bruno Mars (“When I Was Your Man,” 3.93 million) and Rihanna (“Stay,” 3.85 million).