Adele’s 25 smashes past half a million sales and is on course to be the fastest selling UK album ever

Adele is set to enter the Official Chart history books this week, as her latest album smashes past half a million sales after just three days on sale, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

25’s total sales so far this week stand at a massive 538,000, putting it in good stead to become the UK’s fastest-selling album ever. Adele has already secured the second fastest-selling album in Official Chart history, with four days of the chart week still left to run.

MORE: See this week's Top 100 Official Albums Chart Update

Only two albums have ever sold more than 500,000 copies in a week; Take That’s Progress sold 519,000 in its debut week in November 2010, and Oasis’s Be Here Now, the all-time record holder, notched up 696,000 in its first chart week in August 1997.

MORE: 10 mind-blowing Official Chart facts about Adele

By comparison, when 21 was first released in January 2011, it sold 208,000 copies in its first week and passed the 500,000 sales milestone by its fourth week on sale. It only achieved its biggest one-week tally in its 10th week on sale with a total of 258,000 copies sold in seven days.

Watch The Muppets' hilarious spoof of Adele's Hello below: 

MORE: See where all of Adele's singles and albums have charted in the UK

Meanwhile, Elvis’s former chart-topping collection If I Can Dream climbs back up to Number 2, and Justin Bieber’s Purpose is at 3.

Enya’s first album seven years, Dark Sky Island, starts at Number 4 on today’s Official Chart Update, and last week’s chart-toppers One Direction complete the Top 5 with Made In The A.M.

New entries and high climbers

The special edition of Take That’s III - which includes new single Hey Boy - enters at 6, Olly Murs re-enters the tally at 10 with the repack of his latest album Never Been Better, and Adele’s 21 jumps 17 spots to Number 12.

Status Quo’s Accept No Substitute – The Definitive enters at 15, Cilla Black’s The Very Best Of is new at 20, and Tracey Chapman’s Greatest Hits is new at 25.

Newton Faulkner is on track to land his fifth Top 40 album this week with Human Love, new at 26, Queen’s A Night At The Odeon is at 30, and Benjamin Clementine is set to make his Top 40 debut this week following his Mercury Prize win last Friday with At Least For Now (31).

Finally, Maroon 5’s Single Collection (36) and Roger Waters’ The Wall (40) are on course to enter this week’s Albums Top 40.

See this week's Top 100 Official Albums Chart Update

Image: Rex