With over a hundred artists in the industry, it's quite difficult to stay in the top. However, country crooner, Taylor Swift along with multi-Grammy award winner, Adele proved all the odds wrong. Joining the two lovely ladies as the top selling artists worldwide of 2012 is none other than the popular British boy band, One Direction.

Despite her absence in the music business, Adele proved her powerhouse vocals will let her stay on top. Adele's album, "21" managed to be the biggest selling album for the year twice in a row! The Grammy award winner's vocal talent is not only the reason for such success but her heartache and mastery in song writing as well. The singer's win for the Grammy's might be the greatest success of the year but nothing compares to her birth to a bouncing baby boy. Thanks to that, "21" sold over 9 million copies.

Taylor Swift squeezed in at second place who is trailing far behind from the powerhouse British vocalist. The country crooner's "Red" album promoted everything from a tour with Ed Sheeran to a chain pizza to sneakers which moved over 3.8 million in sales since it's' release last October 22.

The most impressive winners on the list of course go to the British boy band, One Direction. The boys namely Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik are from being the five simple boys from "X-Factor." Now, the boys have an impressive female fan base of which they have to thanks for their album, "Up All Night" being able to sell out around 3.6 million copies. With their album barely being on the shelf for five weeks, "Take Me Home" - the follow up album, managed to hit the number 5 spot! Being British and all, One Direction had the highest US debut for a UK act and these boys managed to break records left and right the whole year round.

Adele, Taylor Swift and One Direction may have taken the top three spots but that doesn't mean there isn't room for a few others. Lana Del Rey made an impressive rank at number four all thanks to "Born to Die" despite her disastrous "SNL" debut. Pink also took the number 7 spot with "Truth About Love" while Bieber hit number 8 with "Believe."

Coldplay's "Mylo Xyloto" hit number 9 while Maroon 5's "Overexposed" hit number 10. Michael Buble surprisingly makes it to number 11 with his resilient album, "Christmas."

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