Following Prince's shock death last April, fans paid their respects in the most appropriate way: by buying his albums and listening to his music.

The Purple One sold more albums than any other artist in 2016, Billboard reports. His 2.23 million album haul even edged out chart-topping megastar Adele, who sold 2.21 million.

According to the US figures, his bestsellers were the 2001 compilation The Very Best of Prince (668,000 copies) and his 1984 classic Purple Rain (498,000), with most of the traditional sales coming in the four weeks straight after his April 21 death.

Of course, the musician's prickly relationship with new media may have buoyed those figures.