ABC/Randy HolmesMetallica was the most-listened-to rock artist of 2017, according to the year-end report from Nielsen. The metal legends boasted a combined total of 1,836,000 album sales, track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums.
Nielsen’s #3 rock artist of 2017 was The Beatles with 1,652,000 in combined album sales, track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums.
Meanwhile, Metallica’s Hardwired…to Self-Destruct was the third biggest rock album of the year in overall sales and streams, after Imagine Dragons‘ Evolve and Twenty One Pilots‘ Blurryface. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers‘ 1993 Greatest Hits compilation was #5 on the Nielsen tally.
Despite Metallica’s big year, rock lost its crown as the most-consumed music genre this year for the first time. Instead, R&B/hip-hop was the most dominant genre of 2017.
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