Billboard has revealed that the star’s new album is set to sell over 2.5 million copies in its first week in America, a mark that will break *NSYNC’s long-standing record of 2.42 million sold.
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Music industry analysts are projecting that Adele could sell upwards of 2.8 million to 2.9 million copies for its first week, which ends on Thursday.
During the day of the album release on November 20, 900,000 copies were sold on iTunes store, reports stated.
What all of this means: it is now starting to look like a foregone conclusion that 25 will shatter the official all-time first week record for album sales in America.
Adele’s album won’t be on any streaming service for now, with both Spotify and Apple confirming the holdout overnight, while the NY Times reported that Adele was “personally involved with the decision”.
Adele, 27, hasn’t commented on why she refused to make “25” available on streaming services, but artist complaints about paltry royalties from streaming are likely to blame.
The success of 25 follows in the wake of that of the first album single, Hello, which went platinum and has become the UK’s fastest selling song of the year.
Such anguish leaves only so much room for light-heartedness, though cheerful moments do appear on the album and offer Adele the chance to shake up her usual formula. Its sales haven’t faltered since: Before 25’s release, 1989 was still the best-selling album of 2015. Those services have racked up tens of millions of subscribers around the world but have been criticized by many artists over the royalties they pay, and the effect that they may have on sales.
According to The Guardian industry sources are expecting the album to sell about 700,000 copies in the United Kingdom in its first week, while in the U.S. the total could be 2.5m.
The record’s first single “Hello” and accompanying video has already broke sales records, including most downloads of any song in history during its first week of release, according to E!
One of the strongest tracks on the album is “Million Years Ago”.
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The December 12 release of the Billboard 200 album charts also seems fated to debut 25 at the number 1 spot and if this does actually occur it will be the second time Adele has managed to claim the spot.
