Adele’s 25 On Track To Break One-Week Sales Record
When Adele’s comeback single “Hello” came out just a few weeks ago, it smashed through a whole bunch of records, becoming the first song ever to sell over a million downloads in a single week. As of yesterday, the rest of 25 is now out in the world, and it seems likely that it will continue to demolish everything in its path, commercially (and emotionally) speaking.
Billboard reports that after one day on sale, the album is already on track to sell over 2.5 million copies in its first week in the US, according to industry forecasters. (It sold 900,000 copies yesterday on the iTunes Store alone.) That would be enough to break *NSYNC’s long-standing one-week sales record of 2.42 million, set by No Strings Attached in 2000, which remains the only album to sell 2 million copies in the US in a single week since Nielsen Music began tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991.
For comparison: Taylor Swift’s blockbuster 1989 sold just under 1.3 million copies in its first week, and that was the largest sales week for an album since 2002. Adele is keeping 25 off of all streaming platforms, which certainly helps — the Target version of the album also has three exclusive bonus tracks — but on the other hand, come on, Adele doesn’t need any help. Adele is a beast. Adele is coming for you, *NSYNC.
UPDATE 11/23: Billboard reports that 25 already sold 2.3 million copies in its first three days and is on pace to sell 2.9 million by Thursday, the last day of this chart frame.