Adele's '21' outsells Eminem's 'Recovery' to become top-selling digital album

Who else is going to pass 1 million digital album sales mark?

By Katie Hasty Thursday, Jul 14, 2011 6:29 PM

Adele's "21"

It was only earlier this month that Eminem set a brand-new sales record: his album "Recovery" was the very first set to sell more than one million copies digitally.

But now Adele's "21" has achieved the same, and with gusto.

As of this week, the British singer's sales are at 1,017,000, surpassing Eminem's current tally of 1,005,000.

Adele's "21" has sold 2.6 million copies total, including digital.

Billboard's Keith Caulfield -- expert in all things Nielsen SoundScan -- told USA Today that fans can expect Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" and Mumford & Sons' "Sign No More" to pass the 1 million digital albums mark by the end of the year. Gaga famously moved more than a million total of her set in its first week. Mumford & Sons has been slowly burning its way up the chart for a year.

As previously reported, sales for the year are up -- but only currently 1% so far, compared to last.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.