Adele is basking in the afterglow of her sweep at the Grammy Awards, where she took home 6 honors.
Not only was the singer thrilled with her evening, Adele’s fans hit the stores and bought “21” in huge numbers.
Billboard reports the album sold 730,000 copies in the U.S. last week (ending Feb. 19) according to Nielsen SoundScan - up a whopping 207%.
“21” now spends a 21st week at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
It is the biggest sales week for any album since Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV" debuted at No. 1 with 964,000 on the chart dated Sept. 17, 2011. 730,000 is also the largest week for "21," as its previous-best week came over the Christmas holiday, when it sold 399,000.
Among all albums, since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, "21" has the second-largest sales week for an album outside of the Christmas shopping season and its first month of release. Only the "Titanic" soundtrack moved more (with those qualifiers) on the chart dated Feb. 28, 1998, when it sold 848,000 at No. 1 - two months after its debut. (It had a huge gain that week on the chart - it was up by 44% - thanks to the Valentine's Day holiday.)
"21" is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a 21st nonconsecutive week, marking the longest-running No. 1 album in the SoundScan era. It surpasses "The Bodyguard" soundtrack (20 weeks at No. 1 in 1992-1993) for the most chart-topping frames since the Billboard 200 began using SoundScan data in 1991.
"21" - Adele's second album - also becomes the longest-running No. 1 album by a woman in history, surpassing the Whitney Houston-led "Bodyguard" album.
"21" also turns one-year old on the Billboard 200 as it claims its 52nd week on the list. The album has never left the top 10 in its entire chart run, dipping only as low as #7 on Dec. 10, 2011.
Here are the albums with the most weeks at #1 in the nearly-56 year history of the Billboard 200 chart:
Weeks at No. 1, Title, Artist, Peak Year
54, "West Side Story" soundtrack, 1962**
37, "Thriller," Michael Jackson, 1983
31, "Rumours," Fleetwood Mac, 1977
31, "South Pacific" soundtrack, 1958
31, "Calypso," Harry Belafonte, 1956
24, "Purple Rain," Prince and the Revolution/Soundtrack, 1984
24, "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack, 1978
21, "Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em," M.C. Hammer, 1990
21, "21," Adele, 2011
** (The figure of 54 weeks at No. 1 combines the set's time atop separate stereo and mono LP charts before the Billboard 200 became a singular ranking the week of Aug. 17, 1963.)
Adele
Adele – Rolling In The Deep
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