Adele's '25' Sells 3.38 Million Copies in First Week, Crushing Previous Record

Adele, the wildly popular British singer, released her third studio album 25 on November 20. Even before its release, the record was poised to make waves, with some even saying it could be a kind of savior for the struggling music industry. So, it comes as no surprise that, according to Nielsen Music, 25 sold 3.38 million copies in its first week in the United States. This record has made the biggest single sales week in history, or since Nielsen began tracking music purchases in 1991.

Nielsen Music’s tracking method runs from Friday to Thursday each week; 25 closed its first week then at the end of business on November 26. Earlier during this week, the album broke the previous record of 2.42 million copies sold made by *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, which debuted in March 2000. 

In addition to this achievement, 25 is the first record to sell more than three million copies in the first week, only the second record to exceed two million copies sold in the first week, and just the 20th record to  sell at least one million copies in the first week.

Released by XL Recordings/Columbia Records, 25 is the largest selling album of the year so far; it has nearly doubled the 1.8 million copies Taylor Swift’s 1989 sold this year. The record will also top the Billboard 200 album chart this week, making it Adele’s second number one album (21, her previous record, made history with 24 nonconsecutive weeks at the top if the Billboard 200, which is the longest run at number one for a woman on the chart ever, and to date, has sold 11.2 million copies in the U.S. In Nielsen history, 21 is the 10th-biggest selling record).

Sales of Adele’s 25 made up 41% of all record sales in the U.S. this past week, which included the Thanksgiving holiday. And, of all the albums sold, 51% were physical copies (an impressive number that means that more than half of the people who bought 25 purchased an actual CD) and 49% of the album’s sales were digital.

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