Adele smashes single week United States album sales record in four days

Adele’s album quickly usurped Taylor Swift’s massive “1989”, which moved 1.29 million in its first week and became the fastest-selling album in more than a decade.

Adele’s 25 album looks well set to top the opening-week record in the United States, with at least 2.3 million copies sold in the first three days alone.

Alert the presses: Adele’s 25 has sold 2.433 million albums in less than four days, breaking the all time record for most albums sold in one week, with plenty to spare.

The boys also hold the title for second-fastest album with 2001’s follow-up, Celebrity, selling more than 1.8million copies.

“We officially say Bye Bye Bye as @Adele says Hello to the World Record of Most Albums Sold In a Single Week”.

Adele keeps her signature piano ballads but adds a few new surprises into the mix on “25”.

Like Swift’s recent blockbuster albums, Adele’s record company is keeping “25” off Spotify and other music streaming services, which in the case of superstar releases can successfully drive consumers to purchase the full album. The 2011 album has been on the Billboard 200 albums chart for 248 weeks, and jumped back into the top 25 when Hello was released. Prior to Nielson Music, it was unknown how many copies of an album or single were sold in a single week.

“Everything we hear about the music industry and about different times and different platforms, there’s only one thing that’ll ever matter in music and that’s the song…”

The initial sales are a boost for an industry that has drastically changed over the past decade. The eighth album by the Barbadian shape-shifter Rihanna, “Anti-“, reportedly will be available exclusively to subscribers of the high-quality streaming service Tidal during its first week of release, which is expected to commence on Friday. Instead fans are pushing sales of the album to a record, and above estimates which ranged as high as 2.5 million units the first week.