News: Adele’s ’25’ Album Makes History, Sells 3.38 Million Copies First Week

Adele has made history with her new sophomore album 25. The new LP sold 3.38 million copies in the U.S. and became the highest selling album in the opening week since Neilsen started tracking sales in 1991. The album became the second to go over the 2 million mark, period.

According to Billboard, Earlier in the week, 25 beat the previous single-week sales record, held by *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, when it launched with 2.42 million sold (in the week ending March 26, 2000). 25 is also just the 20th album to sell at least a million copies in a week. In addition, 25 is already the biggest selling album of 2015 (surpassing the 1.8 million sold of Taylor Swift’s 1989).

25 will debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart dated Dec. 12, marking the singer/songwriter’s second No. 1. The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The top 10 of the chart is scheduled to be announced on Nov. 29, along with 25’s total consumption figure for the week.

25 follows Adele’s 21, which racked up 24 nonconsecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 (the longest run at No. 1 for a woman in the chart’s history) and has sold 11.2 million in the U.S. It’s the 10th-largest selling album in Nielsen history.