Adele’s ‘30’ Becomes 2021’s Best-Selling Vinyl Album, Holds at No. 1 on Top Album Sales Chart

Adele’s 30 spends a fourth consecutive, and total, week at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart (dated Dec. 25) – and also becomes 2021’s top-selling album on vinyl.

Across all of its available formats, both physical and digital, 30 sold 146,000 copies in the United States in the week ending Dec. 16 (down 2%) according to MRC Data. Its total sales climb to 1.21 million. It is the only album released in 2021 to sell a million copies.

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30 also rules the Vinyl Albums chart for a fourth week, selling 41,000 copies (up 16%). Its total sales on vinyl now climb to 234,000 – becoming 2021’s top-selling album on wax. It surpasses the previous top-seller, Taylor Swift’s Evermore, which has sold 232,000 on vinyl through Dec. 16.

With 30 spending a fourth week at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the set becomes the first album with four weeks in a row at No. 1 in over a year, since Swift’s Folklore spent its first five weeks at No. 1 (Aug. 8 – Sept. 5, 2020-dated charts), of its seven total nonconsecutive weeks in the lead. 30 is the second album released in 2021 to rack up at least four weeks at No. 1 on Top Album Sales, following Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, which has notched four nonconsecutive weeks in charge.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now MRC Data. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

Swift’s former Top Album Sales No. 1, Red (Taylor’s Version), holds steady at No. 2 on the latest Top Album Sales tally, with 33,000 sold (down 14%).

MONSTA X’s latest album, The Dreaming, debuts at No. 3 with 29,500 copies sold. Of that sum, 28,000 were sold on CD and 1,500 were sold via digital download. The album was not available on any physical format aside from CD. Like many K-pop releases, the CD edition of the album was issued in multiple collectible packages (more than 10, including a Target-exclusive edition) each with a set of standard internal paper goods and randomized elements (trading cards, sticker sheet, poster, etc.).

Olivia Rodrigo’s former No. 1 Sour is stationary at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with 27,000 copies sold (up 57%, thanks to a surge in vinyl LP purchases), Billie Eilish’s chart-topping Happier Than Ever vaults 11-5 with 19,000 sold (up 41%, owed in part to an increase in vinyl sales) and The Beatles’ No. 1 Let It Be falls 5-6 with 17,000 sold (though up 7%).

Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to the animated TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas dips 6-7 with 17,000 sold (up 9%). The Beatles’ former leader Abbey Road climbs 12-8 with nearly 17,000 sold (up 28%)

Neil Young / Crazy Horse’s new album Barn bows at No. 9 on Top Album Sales with 15,500 sold. Of that sum, physical album sales comprise 13,500 (9,000 on CD, 4,500 on vinyl LP and a negligible sum on cassette tape) and digital album sales comprise 2,000. Barn is the 13th top 10 for Young on the Top Album Sales chart, since it launched in 1991.

Carrie Underwood’s My Gift rounds out the top 10 on Top Album Sales, falling 7-10 with 15,000 sold (down less than 1%).

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