Update 2: Adele’s “25” generated 3.48 million in total first week US consumption. That positions the album at a comfortable #1 on the Billboard 200.
More details — and the full Top 10 — are available here.
===============
Update: Nielsen Music has confirmed that Adele’s “25” sold 3.38 million US copies during its first week of release.
The mark is a new record for the Soundscan era. *NSYNC’s 2000 album “No Strings Attached,” which previously held the record, sold 2.416 million copies during its debut week.
It also instantly establishes “25” as 2015’s best-selling album. Taylor Swift’s late 2014 release “1989,” which is the next-best-seller, has moved roughly 1.8 million copies this year.
And it easily positions “25” at #1 on the week’s Top Album Sales.
Billboard has yet to confirm how many additional units “25” received from Track Equivalent Albums and Streaming Equivalent Albums, but such confirmation is obviously not needed to report that “25” concurrently debuts at #1 on the consumption-oriented Billboard 200.
The week’s Top 10 will be revealed soon.
==============
There will surely be a disparity between the preliminary number reported by Hits Daily Double and the final number published by Billboard.
There will not, however, be any debate about the mammoth nature of the performance.
According to Hits Daily Double, Adele’s “25” sold approximately 3,354,773 US copies during its first week of release.
Obviously enough for a dominant #1 on the weekly sales chart, the weekly total is the greatest recorded in the history of the Soundscan era. It obliterates the previous record of 2.416 million, which was recorded by *NSYNC’s “No Strings Attached” in 2000.
The total, moreover, is already the largest year-to-date album sales figure for 2015. Taylor Swift’s “1989,” which is thus far the year’s #2 album, has sold roughly 1.8 million copies inside of 2015.
A number of this magnitude surely comes with a meaningful margin of error, but the error will not remotely jeopardize any of the aforementioned milestones. The blockbuster, record-breaking album clearly sold well over 3 million first week copies.
With Track Equivalent Albums (10 single sales = 1 unit) and Streaming Equivalent Albums (1500 single sales = 1 unit; a limited factor for the album due to its absence from on-demand streaming services) added to the pure sales total, Hits estimates that “25” generated 3,468,558 million weekly consumption units. That number will produce the album’s #1 position on the Billboard 200.
The week’s other notable pure sales performers: Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” (~169,000 sales), One Direction’s “Made In The AM” (~80,858 sales), Pentatonix’s “That’s Christmas To Me” (~60,624 sales), Jadakiss’ “Top 5 Dead or Alive” (~50,722 sales), and Chris Stapleton’s “Traveller” (~49,333 sales).
This week’s other notable consumption performers: “Purpose” (~291,130 units), “Made In The AM” (~104,389 units), The Weeknd’s “Beauty Behind The Madness” (~68,415 units), “That’s Christmas To Me” (~61,915 units), and “Traveller” (~59,159 units).