London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Adele: 30 becomes 2021's fastest-selling album despite sales drop

Adele: 30 becomes 2021's fastest-selling album despite sales drop

Adele's 30 has shot to number one, overtaking Abba to become the fastest-selling album of the year so far.

Its 261,000 first-week chart sales mean it sped past the Swedish pop group's comeback album Voyage, which opened with 204,000 sales.

However, Adele's sales figures are significantly lower than those of her previous album 25, released in 2015.

That album, her third, opened with 800,000 first-week sales, which means 30 has sold 32% of its predecessor.

The drop can be partially explained by the huge growth of streaming in the last six years. Added to which, there was a greater incentive for fans to buy 25, as it was kept off streaming platforms for its first six months of release.

Adele's opening sales have topped those of Abba's long-awaited comeback album Voyage


Adele won out over Ed Sheeran's = (Equals) album to claim top spot this week.

This means she has now secured a chart double, with the album's lead single Easy On Me remaining number one for a sixth consecutive week.

Adele's opening week success with 30 ensures all four of her albums have now reached number one - a record for a female act.


The album made up 67% of all physical sales and became the most-streamed album of the week, with 55.7 million plays across all tracks.

The numbers mark the biggest first week for an album since Sheeran's ÷ (Divide) in 2017.

It is also strongest opening week for a female solo album since Adele's last studio album 25, which was released in November 2015.

The London-born star has said that 30 is an attempt to explain her divorce from her husband to nine-year-old son Angelo.

The BBC's review said it finds an "emotionally bewildered" Adele "at the top of her game".

Adele's album shines bright - but can her music last?

Adele's last album achieved platinum status in 24 hours, selling 300,000 copies in a single day.

Her latest hasn't reached that figure after a week on sale. But go easy on her - album sales have fallen precipitously in the six years since Adele released 25.

Back then, streaming accounted for just 11% of the UK's music market - and no-one thought it was odd for Adele to withhold her album from Spotify and Apple. By relying on CDs, vinyl and downloads, she racked up a record-breaking 800,000 sales in the space of a week.

Today, 80% of music consumption is on streaming services and most of Adele's fans are happy not to own a hard copy of 30. That's reflected in lower sales figures - but Adele is still setting fire to the rain.

In the US, 30 is already the biggest-seller of the year, overtaking albums by Drake and Olivia Rodrigo. In the UK, her first-week total of 261,000 is miles ahead of the 7,317 copies Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia sold on its fourth week at number one last May (the lowest ever total for a UK chart topper).

The record industry and the media still rely on album sales as a measure of success - but in reality, the public has moved on. Adele's success should really be measured in cultural impact. Her US TV special was watched by more people than the Grammys or the Oscars. The British equivalent drew a peak audience of 5.4 million viewers, helping ITV achieve its biggest Sunday night of the year.

The real question is whether, after this publicity blitz, her new music will hang around.

"Success may be more about whether, two months down the line, we still have memes flooding TikTok and James Corden doing skits," observed music industry analyst Mark Mulligan.

"This will say as much about how the world is responding to her music than how many streams she clocks up."

Abba's Voyage slips to third place this week, while Oasis are a new entry at number four with the live recording of their Britpop-defining Knebworth gig from 1996.

Other debut entries in the top 10 include Robert Plant and Alison Klauss' second collaboration Raise The Roof and London rap collective D Block Europe's new mixtape Home Alone 2.

Rock-pop veterans Elbow also feature with their latest album Flying Dream 1.

In the singles rundown, Adele's chart domination means her biggest competition remains... herself.

The singer's 101,000 chart sales and 11.5 million streams of Easy On Me beat out her two other tracks from 30 - Oh My God, which claims the week's highest new entry at number two, and I Drink Wine at number four.

Easy On Me is now Adele's longest-running chart-topper, outstripping Someone Like You.

Ed Sheeran is Adele's only competition in the top 5 of the singles chart


Her closest competition in the singles chart, Sheeran, slipped to third with Shiver, while Bad Habits spent its 22nd week in the top 10 at number five.

This week's biggest chart jump comes courtesy of 17-year-old Nashville pop prodigy Gayle, whose track ABCDEFU rises 26 positions to number 14.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×