As Noise 11 points out, the actual figures are nothing short of “unprecedented”: 25 sold one-third of all albums in the chart’s top 500 and 40% of all album sales in the top 500 were releases by Adele. The album made a record for best first-week sales by selling 3.38 million copies in its first week in the US. Billboard reports that the pop star’s 25 scored the #1 album with 3.48 million equivalent album units sold, with a stunning 3.38 million in pure album sales. Not to mention 25 is only the 20th album to sell at least a million copies in a single week. It sold 2.42 million copies in a single week 15 years ago in 2000. Jadakiss debuted at #4 with Top 5 Dead or Alive, selling 66,000 units (60,000 in pure album sales).
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Over in her home country, 25 has become the U.K.’s biggest-selling #1 album in history, selling sold 800,307 copies in its first week.
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Blackerby and Weiblinger said this kind of power is only reserved for the biggest of superstars: Adele, along with performers like Taylor Swift and Beyonce.
The unparalleled success of 25 trickled down on Adele’s previous LPs as well as 21, a chart powerhouse in its own right, ascended back into the Top 10 for the first time since March 2013, finishing the week at Number Nine and 46,000 copies. You only hear from her when she’s got music to share, she doesn’t endorse anything and her social media posts are nearly as infrequent as her albums.
Sales of Adele’s 25 made up 41% of all record sales in the USA this past week, which included the Thanksgiving holiday.
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Beyonce’s surprose album failed to match sales of upcoming albums by both Taylor Swift and Adele. Early Billboard projections had her comeback album, 25, going double-platinum in its first week. “It’s not just that she’s breaking the record, but we’re now in a day and age where music consumption has changed so dramatically”. In fact, it sold more copies than the next 86 albums on the United Kingdom albums chart combined.
