Complete sales data for November 23 is not yet available, but enough has been reported to confirm that Adele’s “25” has officially broken the Soundscan-era record for weekly US sales.
And its first week of release does not even end until November 26.
According to Nielsen Music, “25” had sold 2.433 million copies by early Monday, which represented its fourth day of availability in the United States. The previous weekly record, which was held by *NYSNC’s “No Strings Attached,” was 2.416 million.
“25,” therefore, needed just half a week to break the weekly sales record.
It needed even less time to become 2015’s best-selling overall album. Since January, no album has sold as many cumulative copies as Adele’s “25” did in its first three days.
Conservative projections suggest “25” will reach the 2.9 million US sales mark by the end of the November 20-26 tracking week.