Adele breaks another huge album sales record

Adele's new album "25" has sold 3.38 million copies in its first week, smashing single week sales records, according to Nielsen Music.

As reported by Billboard, "25" is the first album to sell more than 3 million copies in one week in Nielsen's history, which has been tracking first week purchases since 1991. The previous record was held by *NSYNC whose 2000 album "No Strings Attached" sold 2.4 million copies in its first week.

"25" has also become the best-selling album of the year, flying past the 1.8 million copies sold of Taylor Swift's "1989." Adele did not allow streaming services like Spotify to make "25" available.

Adele unveiled the album's lead single, "Hello," in October to critical praise. She followed that up with "When We Were Young" this month. "25" marks Adele's first studio set since 2011's best-selling album, "21," which has sold 11.24 million copies in the United States.

"this feels like such a long time coming, my new album is finally out. i am overwhelmed and grateful to be able to even put another record out, and put it out how i want. the last month has been a whirlwind, its literally taken my breath away. i hope you enjoy the record as much as i enjoyed making it for you," the Grammy winner tweeted on the day "25" came out.