Adele’s latest album 25 has beaten the first week sales record previously set by Oasis.
25 garnered 737,000 sales in its first week on release, while Oasis’ Be Here Now, the previous record-holder, shifted 696,000 units. However, the results are somewhat skewed due to Be Here Now having been released on a Thursday, meaning it only had three days worth of sales contributing to its total.
Its seven day total clocked in at 813,000, but the Official Charts do not take this account given that the national release date for new albums has now changed, meaning that despite the possibility that Adele’s 25 may have actually sold less copies than Be Here Now within the same time period, it is still the record holder. The full number of copies of 25 that have been sold in the UK thus far will be revealed today on BBC Radio 1’s chart show.
25 was notably absent from streaming services such as Spotify, which given its incredible number of sales, could lead to some record labels also seek to take this route in the future when it comes to new releases from popular artists. Hopefully this won’t prove to be the case, and that labels will instead come to the conclusion that Adele sold so many albums because she is omni-present and inescapable.