November 20, 2015 - 13:01 AMT
Adele's new album set to ship 3.8 million copies, smash records

Adele’s new album 25 is about to say hello to some incredible record breaking, with Columbia Records set to ship 3.6 million physical copies of the LP and long awaited collection of new songs from the singer, according to Gigwise.

It will be marking the highest number of new-released CD’s shipped in the last decade. The last album to ship more physical copies was NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, with that record shipping 4.2 million copies in 2000.

From 18 November, insiders reported to Billboard that parent company Sony Music is predicting first-week CD sales of over 1.5 million, while Apple digital sales are expected to reach around 900,000. Overall downloads are predicted to come in at around one million units.

Sources have also predicted that preorders at iTunes will be as high as 450,000. Amazon’s pre-orders have already risen to over 100,000 for both MP3’s and CD’s. Although, it has been reported that 25 may not be available initially on the powerhouse streaming site, Spotify.

If the digital and CD projections are accurately met, Adele would be selling about 2.5 million units in her very first week, which would make it the largest-selling album in a week in the history of SoundScan, which started monitoring album sales back in 1991. The insane record is currently held by *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached, with the pop LP selling 2.415 million units during the week ending March 26, 2000.

Adele exploded back onto the scene with her black and white video for the huge single 'Hello'. The hugely successful singer also performed a new song from the album, 'Water Under The Bridge' two nights ago in New York City on the same night that her album leaked in full.