We knew that Adele‘s first-week sales numbers would be huge. The British singer-songwriter that achieved international stardom with her emotionally charged 21 album had been away for 3 years, yet her return single, “Hello,” broke sales records for first-week downloads. Early Billboard projections had her comeback album, 25, going double-platinum in its first week. The fact that she broke NSYNC‘s U.S. first-week sales record came as a surprise to few. Still, chances are most people didn’t see this coming.
Billboard can confirm today that Adele’s 25 album, which contain her hearty hits “Hello” and “When We Were Young,” has in fact gone triple-platinum, and then some. The final day in 25‘s first-week frame was November 26, and when the clock struck 12:01, Adele’s third opus had logged a whopping 3.38 million copies in the United States alone over a 7 day span, shattering NSYNC’s record by nearly a whole million. It is the first album in Nielsen Music (the agency that tracks official sales numbers of music in America) history.
Chances are, 25 isn’t done smashing records. As Adele and her label, XL Recordings, continue to work 25, the sales will hardly subside. Her last album, 21, didn’t have nearly the opening week 25 did, and it topped the Billboard 200 for 24 non-consecutive weeks, also a record. Before you know it, we’ll be celebrating Adele’s second consecutive diamond-selling album.
