ADELE ON TRACK TO SELL 5 MILLION THIS YEAR

Adele looks set to sell a staggering 5 million copies of her new blockbuster, 25 (XL/Columbia), by the end of the year. 

Somewhere around 3m of that number is likely to sell in her gargantuan first week.

The album has already surpassed the 2.4m first-week record set by NSYNC in 2000; what's more, Adele could well have as much as a 45% share of all albums sold. For comparison's sake, Taylor Swift sold 23% of all albums when 1989 bowed, while NSYNC's prior record-holder had a 15% share.

Let's take a look at a week-by-week projection to see how she gets to 5m by new year's.

Will Adele hold onto the #1 spot through December, or could new releases from Coldplay and Rihanna overtake her? Stay tuned.