On the Charts: Adele’s ’25’ Racks Up Third Platinum-Selling Week
Adele‘s 25 enjoyed its third platinum-selling week as the record-breaking LP continues to rewrite charts history, selling another 1.15 million copies in its fifth week of release. Sales of 25 actually increased 46 percent over last week’s still-impressive totals, and the 1.15 million copies marks 25‘s second-best sales week since its mammoth 3.38 million debut.
After becoming the first album in the SoundScan era to rack up two platinum weeks, 25 is now in even more uncharted territory with its third. 25 has sold a total of 7.13 million copies, Billboard reports. As Chart News points out, it took 21 52 weeks to cross the 7 million plateau.
Justin Bieber’s Purpose held strong at Number Two for the second straight week, chalking up another 229,000 total copies. Chris Brown’s Royalty was the week’s highest-ranked debut at Number Three and 184,000 copies sold. In the last week before Christmas, Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas to Me moved another 140,000 copies to claim Number Four.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ box office domination bled into the music world as composer John Williams’ score for Episode VII debuted at Number Five, becoming the first score-only soundtrack to reach that high on the Billboard 200 since Williams’ Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace peaked at Number Three in 1999. Of the seven Star Wars episodes so far, six film scores have cracked the Top 10, with only Return of the Jedi falling short in 1983, Billboard writes.
Other than Chris Brown and John Williams, no new releases broke into the Top 10, though the albums at Number Six through 10 all saw their sales increase compared to last week thanks to last-minute shoppers. Bookending the Top 10 was Adele‘s 21, which sold another 71,000 copies to pad its overall sales lead over the gaining 25.