Adele’s “Hello” Becomes The First Song To Sell 1M Downloads In A Week
Hello from the other side … of record-breaking history, that is! (Ha.) We knew Adele’s comeback single “Hello” was going to set some records, but it’s impressive just how many it managed to break. Billboard broke down all of the milestones she managed to achieve: Chiefly among them, a whopping 1.12 million downloads in the first week, almost doubling the previous record holder of Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” which sold 636,000 downloads in a week back in 2009.
It’s Adele’s fourth No. 1 (though her first top spot debut), and only the 24th song ever to debut at No. 1 in the history of the Hot 100. (The last was Bieber’s “What Do U Mean” a few weeks ago.) “Hello” managed 61.6 million streams thanks to its sepia-toned, flip phone-featuring video, coming second only to meme track “Harlem Shake,” and 20.4 million in on-demand streaming service plays. Revisit the video and track below, and contribute to their tallies for week two:
I’m sure we’ll have another one of these record-breaking posts when 25 drops on 11/20 — it’s already projected to top out at over 2 million copies based on pre-order numbers.