The highly anticipated album sold a staggering 800,307 copies this week, giving her the highest opening week sales in Official Chart history, beating Oasis’ previous record with Be Here Now (who sold 696,000 in their debut chart week, though it was released on a Thursday so only registered three days of sales).
It’s been an incredible week for Adele. To put the sales figures into context, 25 has sold more than the rest of the Top 75 combined this week (the next 86 albums, to be precise) AND more than the last 19 Number 1 albums in the UK combined also. Its total sales figure this week means it already receives a 2x Platinum certification by the BPI.
As well as having one of the biggest first day sales totals ever, 25 is also the most downloaded Number 1 album ever, shifting an incredible 252,423 digital copies this week.
The album, which was finally released yesterday (November 20) after months of anticipation, reached the mammoth target of 300,000 sales by midnight last night, based on initial sales tallies from the UK's chart-reporting retailers), after just 24 hours on sale in the UK. The total puts it on course to rival the biggest one-week sales ever.
Only two albums have ever sold more than 500,000 copies in a week – Take That’s Progress which sold 518,601 in its debut week in November 2010, and Oasis’s Be Here Now, the all-time record holder which notched 695,761 in its first chart week in August 1997 (although it was released on a Thursday, so only had three days registering first week).
