Weekly digital track sales have set a new record, with 47.7 million sold in the U.S. between Dec. 22 – Dec. 28, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
That figure for Christmas week represents a 126% spike from the week prior, a likely reflection of consumers redeeming download gift cards or receiving MP3 players as gifts. The week’s top-selling digital song was Interscope artist Lady GaGa’s “Just Dance,” with 419,000 downloads.
Total digital track sales this year were 1,070,000,000 – up 27% from 2007, based on full year-end data.
All but two songs on Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs chart increased their sales by triple-digit percentages last week. During the corresponding week last year, ten songs on that chart sold more than 200,000 downloads; this Christmas week, 15 songs did so.