If these past few days are anything to go by, Adele is shaping up to top the success that the singer had achieved with the release of her second studio album, 21. For the past few days, the singer has been the talk of the town as we’ve received an album announcement and a brand new single, ‘Hello,’ within a very short time-frame. Leaving us with little to no time to prepare, the past few days have been Adele-mania, ahead of her November 20th album release date. Breaking records left and right, things are shaping up to be taken up another notch as early projections are seeing that 25 may sell north of 1.5 million copies in its debut week, according to HitsDailyDouble.
Some handicappers believe 25 will debut with 1.5-1.7m, eclipsing the 1.3m first week of Swift’s 1989, though not approaching the record of 2.4m set by NSYNC’s No Strings Attached back in 2000. Sustaining big numbers through the holidays is the next step in the plan; the graphic below, showing sales of 1989, from its release on 10/27/14 through the first week in January, will be a useful measuring stick for Adele’s performance.
This comes as no surprise as 21 went forth to sell over 11 million copies to date. With ‘Hello’ making its mark early, and headed for the top spot of the Billboard Hot 100, mix all over that with anticipation from fans, Adele has nothing to worry about leading up to the release. For now, it can only go up from here.
