Adele’s ’25’ makes UK chart history

As suggested in TMN last Friday, Adele’s 25 album lived up to all expectations by selling over 800,307 copies in its first week of release in the UK.

It was the highest ever first week figure there, and went instant double platinum. 25 sold more copies than all the other 86 albums in the chart combined. Analysts say that consumer excitement of the Adele release has had a flow-on effect to the rest of the Top 40 album chart. Total sales jumped by 21% to 674,000.

25 overtook the record holder Oasis’s Be Here Now, which reached number one with sales of 696,000 in 1997.

But it must be remembered that the Oasis album reached that figure after three days on sale, released on a Thursday and charting on the Sunday. So if you take three day figures, 25 only shifted 538,000 in that time and is less than the Gallaghers’ effort.

Nevertheless, the Adele achievement is being hailed as a game-changer. “The statistics surrounding the album are staggering!” said Martin Talbot, CEO of the Official Charts Company which collates the UK charts. “No album has ever sold 800,000 copies to reach number one in the history of British music.”

25 also became the first album to sell over 100,000 downloads in a week, in total with 252,423 digital sales. This is quite remarkable considering it’s not available on any streaming service yet. Adele is quoted as saying that could change. The previous digital best was 95,709 for Ed Sheeran’s x last year.

Adele’s last album 21 shifted 4.8 million in her home country.

Talbot added: “What the future holds for 25 will unfold over the coming weeks and months, of course – but we can all be absolutely sure that more records will be toppled as Adele fever grips the nation in the run-up to Christmas.”

In America, 25 shifted 3 million in its first week, more than the expected 2.8 million.

In Australia, 25 debuted at #1 on the ARIA chart, while Hello stayed on in the singles chart for a fifth week. It’s the second longest stay in 2015, following the six weeks that Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s See You Again stayed on top. It’s the first time this year on the ARIA chart where one artist has summit position on both charts. Adele did that in 2011 for seven weeks with Someone Like You and 21.

According to chart historian Gavin Ryan, this has happened 122 times in the history of the Australian charts. The last time was Taylor Swift with 1989 and Blank Space in December 2014.

Despite past comments about stage anxiety and fear of losing her voice on tour, Adele has taken the plunge. “I have been bluffing this whole time and I’m so relieved to tell you I am of course coming on tour,” she said.

UK and European dates have been announced – her first tour for five years. Tickets go on sale this week, on December 1 for members of her website, and December 4 on general sale.

The tour begins in Belfast with two shows at the SSE Arena (Feb 29, March 1) before heading to Dublin, Manchester, London (4 shows at the O2 Arena), Glasgow and Birmingham before hopping across to mainland Europe.