Adele’s 25 Smashes All-Time Album Sales Record

Some time last night Adele’s third album, 25, surpassed N-Sync’s 2000 release No Strings Attached to break the all-time single week sales record since the industry began using SoundScan in 1991. By the Thursday night end of the sales week, 25 is expected to have sold nearly three million copies versus the 2,416,000 copies sold in the first week of No Strings Attached. The first few days of sales for 25 have already made it the top-selling US album for 2015, a title Adele also won both in 2011 and 2012 with her sophomore album, 21, which sold a combined 10.2 million copies in those years. In second place for 2015 is Taylor Swift’s 1989 with 1.79 million units sold. Not incidentally, both titles were withheld from streaming services such as Spotify. Hello, the first single from 25, remains entrenched atop Billboard’s Hot 100 for its fourth week with no end in sight.