Adele’s ‘Hello’ smashes UK sales records

Heavy radio airplay for Adele’s Hello in the UK saw it set new sales records in the UK. Its first week sales of 333,000 were described as “staggering” by the Official Charts Company, which compiles the UK charts.

Hello is the biggest #1 single in three years, since X Factor winner James Arthur’s Impossible moved 490,000 units in December 2012.

It was the most played song in the UK in the first seven days since its Friday October 23, according to airplay data authority Radiomonitor.

It got 5,063 spins across 284 UK stations during the first seven days since its Friday October 23 release. This equates to 95.25 million radio “impacts” (or “listens” if you imagine that each radio listener is hearing the song completely alone on headphones). By yesterday morning, Hello had hit 127.2 million ‘listens’ in the UK alone from 7,496 separate plays.

Across Europe, Hello’s number of impacts has topped 766 million – and expected to hit the billion mark this week. This exceeds the song’s global plays on Spotify (61.6 million) and YouTube/Vevo (192.2 million) – which combined equal 253.36 million. After setting a new record on Vevo delivering 27 million in its first 24 hours, the Hello video became the second-fastest video to notch 100 million views on YouTube.

The 333,000 first week UK sales of Hello included 259,000 downloads and an astounding 7.32 million streams. This has set a new high for streaming in the UK, easily destroying the 3.87 million plays achieved in a week by Justin Bieber’s What Do You Mean in October 2015.

The track already sold 1 million in the United States and instantly certified platinum in Australia for sales of 70,000.

These sales figures reiterate Adele’s across-the-board appeal.

Martin Talbot, CEO of the Official Charts Company noted. “The success of Hello this week underlines what an extraordinary artist Adele is – a once in a generation artist, who appeals to kids, teenagers, mums, dads, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandads.

“To make such an impact, across both streams and sales, is the sign of a truly universally popular artist.”

Hello is Adele’s second chart topping single, her first in her home country was Someone Like You in 2011.

The excitement over the new single has seen both her first two albums re-enter the UK charts. Her last album, 21, was the 21st century’s largest selling record, acquiring over 30 million copies worldwide.

In the meantime, as tipped in TMN, 5 Seconds of Summer’s Sounds Good Feels Good debuted at #1 in the UK – outselling nearest rival Bryan Adams’ Get Up by more than two to one.