Adele's '25' Is the 20th Album to Sell a Million Copies in a Week: See the Full List

With Adele’s 25 having already sold at least 2.3 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music, it has joined an elite club of albums that have sold a million copies in a single week.

Since Nielsen Music started tracking point

of sale music purchases in 1991, Adele’s new album is only the 20th to sell at least a million copies in a single week. (And certainly, the sales figure for 25 will increase, as that 2.3 million total is only for the set’s first three days on sale. It still has another four days left in its initial tracking week, which ends on Nov. 26.)

Adele's '25' Sells 2.3 Million in First Three Days in U.S., Aiming for 2.9 Million Debut Week

The first album to manage the feat was the Whitney Houston-led The Bodyguard soundtrack, which powered through 1,061,000 copies in its sixth week of release (week ending Jan. 3, 1993). The first set to debut with a million copies sold in the Nielsen era was Garth Brooks’ Double Live (1,086,000 in the week ending Nov. 22, 1998).

Of the 20 million-selling weeks, all but three were registered during an album’s debut frame. In addition to The Bodyguard, The Beatles’ 1 also hit the million mark in its sixth week (ending Dec. 24, 2000). The third non-debuting million seller was Eminem’s The Eminem Show, which sold 1,322,000 million in its second chart week (ending June 2, 2002), following an early debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (with 285,000) after its release was pushed up by four days to Friday, May 23 (giving the set just three days of sales for its No. 1 debut).

Adele's '25' Is Already 2015's Biggest-Selling Album

Here are the 20 albums (including 25) that have sold a million copies in a single week, starting with the latest entry, 25.

(Note: No one album has ever sold more than a million copies in more than one week, so this list can also be viewed as the 20 instances where an album sold a million copies period.)

Artist; Title; Sales; Sales Week Ending

Adele; 25; TBD*; Nov. 26, 2015 (*sales for debut week to be determined)
Taylor Swift; 1989; 1,287,000; Nov. 2, 2014
Taylor Swift; Red; 1,208,000; Oct. 28, 2012
Lady Gaga; Born This Way; 1,108,000; May 29, 2011
Taylor Swift; Speak Now; 1,047,000; Oct. 31, 2010
Lil Wayne; Tha Carter III; 1,006,000; June 15, 2008
50 Cent; The Massacre; 1,141,000; March 6, 2005
Usher; Confessions; 1,096,000; March 28, 2004
Norah Jones; Feels Like Home; 1,022,000; Feb. 15, 2004
Eminem; The Eminem Show; 1,322,000; June 2, 2002
‘NSYNC; Celebrity; 1,880,000; July 29, 2001
The Beatles; 1; 1,259,000; Dec. 24, 2000
Backstreet Boys; Black & Blue; 1,591,000; Nov. 26, 2000
Limp Bizkit; Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water; 1,055,000; Oct. 22, 2000
Eminem; The Marshall Mathers LP; 1,760,000; May 28, 2000
Britney Spears; Oops!…I Did It Again; 1,319,000; May 21, 2000
‘NSYNC; No Strings Attached; 2,416,000; March 26, 2000
Backstreet Boys; Millennium; 1,134,000; May 23, 1999
Garth Brooks; Double Live; 1,085,000; Nov. 22, 1998
Whitney Houston/Soundtrack; The Bodyguard; 1,061,000; Jan. 3, 1993