Fastest-selling album worldwide by equivalent album units

Adele’s (UK, b. Adele Adkins) third studio album, 25, reportedly achieved global equivalent album units (physical sales and digital downloads) of 5.7 million in the week of its release on 20 November 2015, despite initially being unavailable for streaming. The multi-faceted sales approach adopted by 25’s closest challenger, Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, led to sales of 5.5 million equivalent album units worldwide on 3–9 October 2025, according to Republic Records. Although Showgirl ended the week just shy of Adele’s mark, the two albums represent contrasting sales strategies across two different eras of music consumption that are somewhat difficult to compare like for like.

In the US alone, 25 posted 3.482 equivalent album units and 3.378 million in traditional sales in the first week – at that time, unprecedented numbers since Billboard’s Luminate sales-tracking era had begun in 1991. By comparison, Showgirl’s 4.002 million equivalent album units comprised 3.479 million traditional album sales (across 38 available editions) and 522,600 streaming equivalent albums, equating to 680.9 million on-demand official streams.

25 was credited with a resurgence in the popularity of music on physical formats, driving more fans into record stores to purchase the complete album if they were unwilling or unable to download it digitally.

By the end of 2015, just six weeks after its release, 25 had shifted 17.4 million copies worldwide. This figure remains second only to Adele’s previous album, 21, with sales of 18.1 million in 2011, since the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) first started publishing global annual sales data in 2001.