"Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons emerged to an elite company today, becoming only the sixth song in history to attain diamond status from the Recording Industry Association of America, i.e it's gone up 10 million units in sales.. Having a wild guess what the other five are? Did a little digging what the five hits were and ranked them from least sales to most...but there's really no such thing as "least sales."
05) "Not Afraid" by Eminem (10 million)
Eminem's "Not Afraid" definitely not one of his most outstanding singles, yet it certainly will stand as one of his bestselling singles. When it was released in 2010, it was the 16th song in history to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and the first hip-hop song to do so since Puff Daddy's "I'll Be Missing You" in 1997. We may never know what inspired Eminem's big debut.
04) "Candle In The Wind" / "Something About The Way You Look Tonight" by Elton John (10 million)
Elton John's "Candle In The Wind" (released during 1997 as a tribute to Princess Diana) has sold more than 28 million copies worldwide, with more than 8.84 million of those coming from the United States.
Anyway, John gets the lift over Eminem in this case for not relying more on streams to hit the diamond status.
03) "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga (11 million)
"Bad Romance," actually one of her less extravagant affairs, was at one point the most watched video in YouTube history (until it was surpassed by Justin Bieber's "Baby") and that's what helped elevate her to 11 million in sales. Nearly half of Gaga's hits for "Bad Romance" were as a result of streams...around 4.43 million of her "sales" come from views and digital streams.
02) "Love The Way You Lie" by Eminem ft. Rihanna (11 million)
Interestingly, "Love The Way You Lie" didn't depend on streams and video views nearly as much as "Not Afraid" did to reach its historic status. A huge portion of its 11 million equivalent sales were made up of streams and other options—4.6 million equivalent sales in fact—but that's a far smaller rate than the other '00's era tracks we've looked at. It's somewhat surprising, considering how much more appealing this video is compared to those options: It features Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan in a dysfunctional relationship, complete with sex and violence. It brought in plenty of viewers, but the song itself also generated more actual sales than the rest of the 21st Century songs on this list, with 6.4 million downloads.
01) "Baby" by Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris (12 million)
Bieber, using the RIAA's new standards, is technically owner of the bestselling digital single in American history. Therefore you would reason that he must also be close to the top in terms of actual sales...and you would be incorrect. In fact, "Baby" has earned less in terms of actual sales than any other song on this list. Less than 4 million in fact. So yes, more than two-thirds of those singles were earned by some sort of streaming. It's not tough to figure out which kind: "Baby" is the second most-viewed video in YouTube history, one of only three that have at least one billion views to its name. That translates to a lot of streams. Not as many as Psy's "Gangnam Style," but at least Bieber's got downloads (and a guest spot from Ludacris) working for him.
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