Adele’s ’25’ Officially Sells 3.38 Million Copies in a Week

Last week, we reported that Adele had already beaten the record for most album sales in its first week, but now that 25's first week of sales is over, the numbers are in. Adele's new album has reportedly sold 3.38 million copies.

The record for first-week sales was previously held by *NSYNC's No Strings Attached, which grossed 2.4 million copies. That's right: Adele's 25 sold almost 1 million MORE copies than the previous record holder. This new record is particularly impressive, given what the New York Times calls, “[a] climate far less hospitable to blockbusters.... At the turn of the millennium [when N’Sync released NSA], retailers were selling about 700 million CDs a year, while last year just 247 million albums were sold in CDs and downloads combined.”

Provided that this year's album sales stay around the 247 million mark, that would mean that over 1 in every 100 album purchases is Adele's 25. Crazy, we know.

In addition to the new record for album sales in a week, 25 has also ousted Taylor Swift's 1989 as the best-selling album of 2015. "Hello," the lead single off of 25, has also been #1 on the Billboard record charts and hasn't budged since its release.

You can purchase 25 from most major retailers and on iTunes.