Billboards latest sales charts show the king of pop as the first artist ever to sell more than a million downloads in a single week, among other firsts.
Fans flocked to the late popstars greatest hits, purchasing a record-breaking 2.6 million Jackson solo recordings and Jackson Five songs, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ending June 28. Jackson also dominated Billboards Comprehensive Album Chart, which tracks both new albums and older catalog albums the first time a catalog album has ever scanned more sales than any new album.
The massively talented boy-man, as his former collaborator Paul McCartney described the eccentric star, posthumously claimed the top three spots with two greatest hits collections and the legendary Thriller album:
1. Michael Jackson - Number Ones (108K album sales scanned)
2. Michael Jackson - The Essential Michael Jackson (102K)
3. Michael Jackson - Thriller (101K)
4. The Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. (88K)
Jackson may once more rule the charts, but times have changed for the record industry since the 80s heyday of cassette and vinyl retail sales. Last week, Billboard estimated that retailers sold 415,000 solo Michael Jackson albums (an increase of 4,150 percent from his total the previous week). In the months following its release, Thriller alone regularly sold twice that in a week.
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