Metallica Is Nielsen’s Number-One Rock Artist Of 2017

ABC/Randy Holmes

Metallica 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 albums sales, track-equivalent albums and streaming-equivalent albums.

Nielsen’s number-two rock artist of 2017 is Imagine Dragons, followed by The Beatles. Linkin Park and Twenty One Pilots round out the top five.

The biggest rock album of the year was Imagine Dragons’ Evolve, and its lead single, “Believer,” is the top rock song.

Despite big years from Metallica and Imagine Dragons, 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.