Adele breaks US record with 3.38 million albums sold in a week

Adele has achieved the unthinkable with “25”, selling well over 3 million albums in a week and beating NSYNC’s long-held record. 

The singer has a lot to celebrate following a whirlwind promotional tour that has seen her take part in most of the best-loved talk shows on both sides of the Atlantic to promote her latest offering. The album is also already sure to be N.1 in all major music markets including the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Norway. 

U.S. week-one sales of 3.38 million copies - according to Nielsen Music - are likely to secure her the record for decades to come (unless she can beat her own). This is a remarkable achievement considering that week-one sales of over a million are almost unheard of these days. 

Much has been said as to whether this figure was achieved due to Adele keeping the album from music streaming services, but even if the decision had an impact on sales this would not have been that significant as many of her fans are not music-hungry Spotify subscribers but casual music listeners. 

It will be interesting now to see how the album will perform in the long term. Her previous effort, “21”, was the gift that kept on giving as it held the top spot for 24 nonconsecutive weeks. At the same time “21” did not debut with the same hype that surrounds “25”, allowing it to build gradually. It may well be that “25” will face a slightly steeper decline, although with these numbers one would imagine it will remain at n.1 until 2016. 

(Andrea Leonelli)