Adele has been named the biggest-selling album artist of 2015, with her third album ‘25’ selling nearly 2.5 million copies since its release in November.
Although the tally can include any streams played from March 25 onwards (when streaming first started to count toward the charts) as well as physical and digital sales, ‘25’ is yet to be made available to stream on any service, meaning that all 2.496 million copies of the record have actually been purchased.
In second and third place were Ed Sheeran’s ‘X’ and Sam Smith’s ‘In The Lonely Hour’ respectively, despite both albums being released in 2014. Sheeran ended the year on 971,000 combined sales, while Smith finished on 893,000, as the Official Charts company confirms.
Completing the Top Five were Elvis Presley’s ‘If I Can Dream’ (881,000) and Justin Bieber’s ‘Purpose’ (645,000).
The full Top Ten can be seen below:
1. Adele, ‘25’
2. Ed Sheeran, ‘X’
3. Sam Smith, ‘In The Lonely Hour’
4. Elvis Presley, ‘If I Can Dream’
5. Justin Bieber, ‘Purpose’
6. Taylor Swift, ‘1989’
7. Jess Glynne, ‘I Cry When I Laugh’
8. James Bay, ‘Chaos And The Calm’
9. Coldplay, ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’
10. George Ezra, ‘Wanted On Voyage’
This is the latest in a long string of achievements for ‘25’, which is now the UK’s fastest-selling record of all time. The release is also the fastest-selling album of the 21st century in the US, and is currently certified quadruple platinum.