Charts: Adele’s ’25’ Becomes Best-Selling Album Since ’21’

Adele‘s 25 continued its Billboard 200 dominance with another near-platinum week to stay cemented in the Number One spot. Aided no doubt by little new competition on shelves – none of the December 11th releases debuted in the Top 10 – as well as her enormously watched NBC concert special Adele: Live in New York, sales of 25 actually increased 13 percent over last week’s still-impressive totals.

In its fourth week of availability, Adele’s latest sold another 825,000 total copies, giving 25 a sum of 5.98 million copies. By comparison, Taylor Swift’s 1989 – which spent an entire year in the Billboard 200’s Top 10 – has sold 5.57 million copies to date, Billboard reports. To pile on the superlatives, in just four weeks, 25 has become the best-selling album since 2011, when Adele’s 21 similarly resuscitated the music industry.

The NBC concert special – which featured performances of “Rolling in the Deep” and “Set Fire to the Rain” – likely also helped 21 climb back into the upper rung of the Billboard 200 by finishing the week at Number 10.

With no new releases impacting the Top 10, the top of the charts stayed largely intact, with only Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams – which slid from Number Two to Number Seven – making any major movement. Justin Bieber’s Purpose finished the week at Number Two and 166,000 copies, while Pentatonix’s That’s Christmas to Me bumped up one spot to Number Three and 141,000 copies.

Although last week didn’t provide any new releases to challenge 25 or the rest of the Top 10, some new blood should arrive next week thanks to Pusha T’s King Push: Darkest Before the Dawn – The Prelude, Chris Brown’s Royalty and, surprisingly, John Williams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens score, as well as Ariana Grande’s surprise Christmas & Chill EP.