Sales figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan showed that RiRi has shifted a total of 47.5 million digital downloads during her career.

That put the Barbadian beauty ahead of Black Eyed Peas (42.4 million) and Eminem (42.2 million) in the top three.

Lady Gaga's 42.08 million downloads earned her fourth place, ahead of Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Kanye West and Britney Spears.

The list of best-selling digital songs suggested that Rihanna owed her place at the top of the overall chart to her prolific output, as none of her tracks made the top ten.

Black Eyed Peas' I Got A Feeling is the most downloaded song of all time, with sales of 7.68 million.

Poker Face and Just Dance by Lady Gaga complete the top three, but both had more than a million fewer downloads than the chart-topper.

Adele's global smash Rolling In The Deep is seventh on the list, with 5.9 million downloads.

Source Metro