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Adele's '25' Album Sales In The First Week Alone Blow *NSync (& Others) Right Out Of The Water

by Zoe Balaconis

Since its much anticipated release last Friday, Adele's 25 has broken almost every sales record imaginable. And now Billboard reports that 25 has sold at least 2.433 million copies to date — and it hasn't even been a full week yet. In fact, the numbers are so amazing, that they mean Adele's 25 has surpassed *NSYNC's No Strings Attached — the previous record-holding album, which sold 2.416 copies in its first week. But hey, that was back March 2000, so maybe it's about time. And who's more worthy to steal the honor away from JT and crew than Miss. A?

"Hello" was Adele's first single in three years, and the lesson here seems to be make 'em wait. "Hello" was the first song to sell at least 1 million downloads in a week, and the video broke Taylor Swift's record for single-day views. According to Billboard, the single had the biggest sales week in over fifteen years and joins the illustrious company of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" as the only other song to sell so many copies in it's first week.

Wondering who Adele left in the dust? Here's a roundup of the other top albums of the past who had an incredible first week in sales (at least since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track).

1

*NSync's "No Strings Attached"

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*NSYNC's No Strings Attached came out March 2000 and completely lapped Backstreet Boys' sales for their 1999 record-holding album, Millennium. With 2,415,859 copies sold in the U.S. alone in it's opening days, the album went double platinum it's first week.

2

Taylor Swift's "1989"

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Taylor Swift's 1989 came out in 2014, and sold about 1,287,000 copies in its first week. In an age when album sales are down in general, the numbers were pretty incredible. If you're thinking of releasing an album, maybe put some numbers in the title. 1989, 25... the number albums seem to do really well. Just saying.

3

Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP"

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Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP" came out way back when, aka 2000, and it sold a whopping 1,760,049 copies its first week in stores. Unlike Taylor Swift and *NSYNC, Eminem hasn't had another album come even close to these sales numbers. But who knows, maybe he's planning a comeback.

While the others are definitely worthy contenders, I gotta say — I'm proud Adele totally smoked 'em. With 25, she killed it; and I know the Grammy's are already waiting for her.

Image: Kevin Winter/Getty Images