The first decade of the century belonged to Eminem -- musically, at least.

The Detroit rapper (real name Marshall Mathers) was the top selling artists of the decade in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Eminem has sold 32.2 million albums during the last 10 years, edging out runner-up the Beatles, with about 30 million in sales. Two of Eminem's albums were also among the Top 5 sellers of the decade -- "The Marshall Mathers LP" from 2000 at No. 4 with 10.2 million and "The Eminem Show" from 2002 at No. 5 with 9.8 million.

Eminem's sales total will grow before the year is out with the Dec. 21 release of "Relapse: Refill," an expanded edition of his latest album, "Relapse" -- which came out in May -- and features seven bonus tracks.

The Beatles did have the top-selling album of the decade with its 2000 compilation "1," which sold 11.5 million copies. It was followed by *NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," also released in 2000, with 11.1 million copies sold and Norah Jones' 2002 debut "Come Away With Me," with 10.5 million sales.

Nielsen SoundScan will release the full list of decade statistics on Friday. In other notable categories: Lady Gaga was top-selling digital act of the decade with 13.6 million tracks sold, followed by Michael Jackson (11.6 million) and the Black Eyed Peas 11.1 million); and Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was the most popular radio song of the decade with 1.2 million plays, trailed by Train's "Drops of Jupiter" and Lifehouse's "Hanging By a Moment."