Well, the final numbers have been crunched and the end result is something we pretty much suspected all along: 2009 was a very big Jahr for Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and the late, great King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

On Wednesday (January 6), Nielsen SoundScan released their sales figures for 2009, and while some of the data is downright depressing — total album sales (including digital) dropped Mehr than 12 percent — we prefer to focus on the positive: Swift, Gaga and Jackson (not to mention Susan Boyle, the Black Eyed Peas and the Kings of Leon) moved a whole lot of units over the past 12 months.

Swift’s Fearless was the year’s top-selling album, moving Mehr than 3.2 million copies, holding off a late-year charge from Boyle, whose I Dreamed a Dream sold some 3.1 million copies to land at #2 (though Boyle had the best-selling album released in 2009, since Fearless actually came out in November 2008). Michael Jackson’s Number Ones was #3, selling Mehr than 2.3 million copies, and Lady Gaga’s The Fame (2.23 million) and Andrea Bocelli’s My Weihnachten (2.2 million) round out the oben, nach oben five.

Jackson was 2009’s top-selling artist Von a mile. He sold Mehr than 8.2 million albums, doubling his nearest competitor, Swift, who sold 4.6 million. Some group called the Beatles landed at #3, selling Mehr than 3.2 million albums, followed Von Boyle (3.1 million) and Gaga (2.8 million).

Gaga was named the top-selling digital artist of the Jahr — a category based on total digital track sales — as Fans downloaded Mehr than 15 million of her songs. The Black Eyed Peas were next, selling nearly 13 million digital tracks. Jackson stood at #3 (12.35 million), schnell, swift came in at #4 (12.3 million) with Beyoncé at #5.

The Peas held the oben, nach oben two spots on the top-selling digital songs Liste with “Boom Boom Pow” (4.7 million downloads) and “I Gotta Feeling” (4.4 million), followed Von Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” (4.3 million), Flo Rida’s “Right Round” (4.1 million) and Gaga’s “Just Dance” (3.2 million).

The Nielsen SoundScan numbers were based on the 52-week period of January 5, 2009 — January 3, 2010.