The monster sales for the first three days mean Adele will break the first week sales record currently held by boy band NSync’s 2000 album “No Strings Attached,” which opened with 2.4 million copies.
Adele’s independent U.K. label XL Recordings last week decided to withhold “25” from online streaming platforms such as Apple Inc’s Apple Music service, privately owned Spotify and Google Play.
The strong three-day sales indicate the lack of streaming availability did not hurt the album, which was released on Friday (November 20), and is the first since her 2011 release “21”, which won six Grammys and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.
“25” racked up more than 900,000 sales in Apple’s U.S. iTunes store on its first day, Billboard said.
The much-anticipated album has been driven by the success of its lead single, the heartbreak ballad “Hello,” which debuted last month and has sold more than 2.5 million digital copies. The song has been No. 1 on Billboard’s Digital Songs chart for four consecutive weeks.
It is increasingly rare for an artist to top the 1 million opening week sales with a new album because fans are driven more and more to online streaming to consume music.
Taylor Swift’s “1989” album was the last record to achieve the milestone when it opened with nearly 1.3 million copies last year. (Reuters)