Adele album enjoys biggest US sales year – ‘25’ sixth week atop Billboard

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NEW YORK, Jan 5, (Agencies): Adele’s record-breaking album “25” has scored another feat — the highest US sales during a single year in a decade.

The British singer’s album unsurprisingly was the top-selling album of 2015 and spent its sixth week at number one on the year’s final chart released Monday by Nielsen Music.

“25” sold 7.44 million copies in the United States by the end of Dec 31 — the most in a year since R&B star Usher’s album “Confessions” sold 7.98 million copies in 2004.

However, Usher’s album came out in March while Adele managed the massive year-end tally despite releasing “25” on Nov 20.

“25,” full of ballads that touch on heartache and childhood nostalgia, was Adele’s first album in four years and benefited from massive pent-up demand. Her previous album, “21,” was the top-selling album in the United States in both 2011 and 2012.

But “21” did not reach the sales of “25” in either year, showing the historic nature of Adele’s latest work.

“25,” led by the single “Hello,” enjoyed the biggest debut week sales on record both in the United States and Adele’s native Britain.

In a move that challenged the music industry’s conventional wisdom about the need for instant online music, Adele did not make “25” available on streaming sites and still managed the huge sales through physical copies and digital downloads.

Adele’s “25” sold 363,000 units in the final week of 2015, bringing her total US sales tally to 7.4 million, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online song sales, Adele’s ballad “Hello” held steady at No. 1 with 327,000 copies sold in the last week of the year.

No new releases cracked into the top 10 of the Billboard 200 list for the week. Justin Bieber’s “Purpose” remained steady at No. 2, while alt-hip hop band Twenty One Pilots’s “Blurryface” climbed to No. 3 from No. 11.

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