BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - MARCH 29: Adele performs at Genting Arena on March 29, 2016 in Birmingham, ... [+]
Whenever Adele returns with a new album, it’s bound to be huge, and with her latest comeback, the superstar didn’t disappoint. The powerhouse singer’s just-released full-length 30 launches at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an incredible 839,000 equivalent units shifted in its first seven days of availability. That’s a massive figure, one which only a handful of artists can come close to these days, and yet it’s still not her best showing...not by a long shot.
That 839,000 figure is enough to guarantee 30 arrives with the largest debut sum of 2021, beating incredibly successful titles by the likes of Drake (Certified Lover Boy, 613,000 copies) and Taylor Swift (Red [Taylor’s Version], 605,000 copies) by several hundred thousand units. The title is a huge win for the star, but that starting number isn’t anywhere near the heights Adele has reached before.
Six years ago, Adele’s 25 launched atop the Billboard 200 with an incredible 3.38 million copies sold in its first week of availability. The title made history at the time, scoring the largest debut in U.S. history, and it remains the only release to move three million units in a single frame.
30 shifted less than one-quarter as many copies in its first week as 25 did half a decade prior. It was expected that Adele’s new project would experience something of a decline in terms of its opening sum, but moving just 25% of what its predecessor managed is a bit surprising.
Amazingly, 30 didn’t just move millions copies in its debut frame, but in several different weeks. The title sold another 1.11 million copies in its second frame, and then a few weeks later in January of the following year, it managed 1.16 million equivalent units. Adele’s previous album shifted at least one million units in three different periods, while her latest, the single most highly-anticipated studio effort in years, couldn't rise to that peak once.
Unlike 25, 30 was immediately available for fans to stream on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, and while millions rushed to listen to Adele’s new compositions, plays on those sites don’t add up like pure sales can. Her last project was a bestseller thanks to incredible demand and anticipation following her global takeover with 21, and it seemed like everyone in the country picked up a copy the moment the CD was placed on store shelves. 30 sold very well in its first frame, but not quite well enough to make history like the release that came before.
30 will likely hold on to the Billboard 200’s throne for several more weeks, and it may lead the charge for the rest of 2021, though it seems highly unlikely that the album will move anywhere near its debut total in the coming frames. In fact, it wouldn’t be strange to see Adele’s latest fail to hit 500,000 copies shifted in another period.
