According to Mashable

Never mind the Beiber; here’s the King of Pop. He’s posthumously beat out every recording artist to become the most-downloaded musician of all time, based on sales data from Nokia.

According to data collected by Nokia’s Ovi music store, Michael Jackson has surpassed Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and a horde of the world’s most popular recording artists to achieve this title.

Some speculate Jackson’s death last year and tributes surrounding what would have been the singer’s 52nd birthday this week to a surge in sales.

In a release, musicologist Geoff Roberts noted Jackson’s perennial popularity, saying, “Michael Jackson has always been a pop music legend. But the anniversary of his death and upcoming birthday celebrations seem to have revived Jackson fever as fans rediscover his songs, making him the most popular solo artist of all time.”

Jackson’s “Beat It,” a popular 1982 single, is the most popular track in the Nokia Ovi store, with “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” close behind.

Sadly, the view counts for Jackson’s hits on YouTube and Vevo aren’t nearly as inflated as those of relative newcomers Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber, who’ve been battling it out for pop cultural supremacy all year.

Still, when it comes to total impact on international culture, YouTube counts are hardly an adequate barometer of significance. When Jackson passed away last summer, tweets mentioning him accounted for an unprecedented 30% of all tweets that day. And during the singer’s memorial service, more than half a million status updates were posted to Facebook.

While Nokia’s store is doubtless a small representation of the larger market of online music sales, the company’s sales data makes sense when you consider other social media stats around Jackson’s life and tragic death.