Brits ruled the American charts again in 2012 - Adele and One Direction have landed Billboard's biggest end-of-year awards.

The boy band was named Top New Artist/Group, while Adele picked up the Artist of the Year prize for a second year running on an awards list announced on Friday.

Adele, who last year became the first woman to land the bestselling single, album and artist on Billboard's annual year-end countdown, claimed the Top-selling Album Artist trophy again for "21", which has now sold more than 10 million copies in the U.S. alone.

She become the only act to be named Top Artist and Top Album Artist two years in a row.

The singer also picked up the Female Artist prize on Friday, while rapper Drake landed the Male Artist trophy and Maroon 5 were named Top Selling Group.

Rihanna took home the Hot 100 Artist title thanks to chart-topping singles like "Diamonds" and "We Found Love", and Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" was ruled Hot 100 Single of the Year.