THE MOTHER OF ALL
CHART STORIES
Adele has topped the HITS Album Sales Chart with a remarkable and jaw-dropping 3.4m. What's more, 25 tops the Sales Plus Streaming (SPS) Chart with 3.5m.
Adele’s sales number pulverizes the 2.4m first-week record set by NSYNC in 2000.
In fact, XL/Columbia’s silver-throated songstress sold more in one week than NSYNC sold in their first two, as No Strings Attached dropped to around 800k in its sophomore week. Will she be the only artist to sell more than 1m copies two weeks in a row? With the power of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, anything seems possible.
Could 25 sell as many as 6m copies by the end of the year? Let’s just say we know what’ll be in your stocking next month.
Speaking of stocking stuffers, Pentatonix—RCA’s Grammy-winning a cappella stars—have taken another big leap. With no other new Christmas albums from major artists this year, their 2014 platinum-plus set, That’s Christmas to Me, moves #10-4 this week, earning another 61k. Their self-titled chart-topper, which dropped this October, leapt #29-14.
In their second weeks out, RBMG/Def Jam’s Justin Bieber and SYCO/Columbia’s One Direction slide to the #2 and #3 spots with 169k and 81k, respectively. At SPS, Bieber notches an impressive 291k.
As for the remaining debuts, Def Jam’s Jadakiss rounds out the Top 5 with the aptly titled Top 5 Dead or Alive, while Reprise’s Enya (#7), NOW/Legacy’s NOW 56 (#8) and Columbia’s Empire Season 2 soundtrack (#15) bow in the Top 15.
In other Adele news, 25’s predecessor, 21, rocketed #27-10, while her debut release, 19, appears at #16. Looks like we’re gonna need a bigger stocking.
Chris Stapleton’s Traveller (Mercury Nashville), which dropped in May and recently enjoyed two weeks at #1 thanks to a huge look at the CMAs, is up again this week with a 14% bump at #6.
With no big releases streeting on 11/27, Adele will continue to be the one to watch. You can also expect Pentatonix to grow throughout the holidays. Finally, don’t sleep on Rihanna’s mysterious ANTI or any other possible surprises.
