NFT sales hit $501 million over the past week. These were the 5 best-selling digital collections.

• NFT sales had a breakthrough year in 2021, and over the past 12 months, volume has hit $22 billion.
• The NFT market is dominated by a handful of standout leaders due to their popularity and rarity.
• These were the five best-selling digital collectibles that helped drive $501 million in NFT sales over the past week.

The cryptocurrency boom over the past few years has helped propel a newer market to record heights: digital collectibles known as NFTs.

In fact, total NFT sales volume hit $22 billion over the past year as artists, investors, and entrepreneurs descend upon the nascent Web3 space.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique, irreplaceable, mostly digital items that users buy and sell online.

NFTs use blockchain technology to keep a digital record of ownership, similar to cryptocurrencies. They were first launched on ethereum, the same blockchain that supports the cryptocurrency ether, and most NFTs can still only be purchased using ether.

Despite the ongoing sell-off in cryptocurrencies, NFT sales have held up relatively well. In the past week alone, sales hit $501 million, according to data from NonFungible.com.

With NFT sales soaring, these were the five best-selling collections over the past week, according to NonFungible.

5. Doodles

7-Day Sales Volume: $5.8 million
Number of Sales: 137
Highest Sale Price: $260,305

Explainer: "Doodles come in a joyful range of colors, traits, and sizes with a collection size of 10,000. Doodles are a funky bunch that like to role play or transmogrify themselves into delicious treats. Holding a Doodle allows you to participate in coordinating the Doodles Community Treasury."

4. Art Blocks

7-Day Sales Volume: $9.6 million
Number of 7-Day Sales: 3,537
Highest Sale Price: $220,513

Explainer: "A storefront for genuinely programmable and on-demand generative artwork that is stored directly on the Ethereum blockchain."

3. The Sandbox

7-Day Sales Volume: $16.1 million
Number of 7-Day Sales: 1,463
Highest 7-Day Sale: $39,662

Explainer: "The Sandbox is a community-driven UGC-voxel platform where users own their LAND and host their creative magic."

2. CryptoPunks

7-Day Sales Volume: $49.5 million
Number of Sales: 74
Highest Sale Price: $23.8 million

Explainer: "10,000 unique collectible characters with proof of ownership stored on the Ethereum blockchain. The project that inspired the modern CryptoArt movement."

1. Bored Ape Yacht Club

7-Day Sales Volume: $57.5 million
Number of Sales: 601
Highest Sale Price: $504,859

Explainer: "BAYC is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs -- unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain. Your Bored Ape doubles as your Yacht Club membership card, and grants access to members-only benefits."