Adele's '21' at 21st Week at No. 1 & Sells 730,000

Whoa. Talk about a post-Grammys sales bump. I expected her Grammy-winning album to get a boost, but nothing like this. This is nuts. According to Nielsen Soundscan, the songbird got a 207% increase in sales this week. It beat out it's previous high-selling record of 399,000 over the Christmas holiday with a grand total this week of 730,000 units moved. Wow.

From Billboard:

It is the biggest sales week for any album since Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter IV" debuted at No. 1 with 964,000 on the chart dated Sept. 17, 2011. 730,000 is also the largest week for "21," as its previous-best week came over the Christmas holiday, when it shifted 399,000.

More impressively, the last time a non-debuting album sold more than "21" did this past week was on the chart dated Jan. 5, 2008. That was when Josh Groban's "Noel" album moved 757,000 copies over the busy Christmas week of 2007.

Among all albums, since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991, "21" has the second-largest sales week for an album outside of the Christmas shopping season and its first month of release. Only the "Titanic" soundtrack moved more (with those qualifiers) on the chart dated Feb. 28, 1998, when it sold 848,000 at No. 1 -- two months after its debut. (It had a huge gain that week on the chart -- it was up by 44% -- thanks to the Valentine's Day holiday.)

"21" is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart for a 21st nonconsecutive week, marking the longest-running No. 1 album in the SoundScan era. It surpasses "The Bodyguard" soundtrack (20 weeks at No. 1 in 1992-1993) for the most chart-topping frames since the Billboard 200 began using SoundScan data in 1991.

"21" -- Adele's second album -- also becomes the longest-running No. 1 album by a woman in history, surpassing the Whitney Houston-led "Bodyguard" album.

Photo from Billboard