Adele breaks album sales records in just four days

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Hollywood Nation: Adele says no for '25'

Singer's latest album won't be available on streaming music services

In just days, Adele's "25" has officially set a new first-week sales record, moving 2.433 million albums since its release Friday.

On Tuesday, Nielsen Music said that in just four days the British singer broke the record previously set by 'N Sync in 2000. The boy band's "No Strings Attached" sold 2.416 million albums in its first week.

To put that into perspective, only Taylor Swift's "1989," (released late last year) Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" (released in April) and Ed Sheeran's "x'' (in June 2014) have sold as much as one million copies all year so far. Adele's disc went on sale Friday.

"There isn't anybody that I've talked to in the music business who hasn't been astonished by these numbers," said Dave Bakula, senior vice president for industry insights at Nielsen.

Adele's previous album, 2011's "21," has sold 11.24 million copies in the United States; it's likely many of the people who sought out the new one this weekend haven't bought an album since. Adele also did not allow streaming services like Spotify to make "25" available, so people anxious to hear it had to buy it.

She performed the first single "Hello" on "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend. That track alone has sold 2.5 million copies in the four weeks it has been on the market.

Adele is leaving Swift in the dust. Her "1989" sold 1.3 million its first week on sale last year, the fastest seller in some time, and Bakula said Adele's disc is likely to finish the week with more than twice that number sold.

The British singer taped a concert special at New York's Radio City Music Hall last week that is scheduled to air on Dec. 14.

Before she performed on "Saturday Night Live," a skit on the show spoke to her wide-ranging popularity. In the skit, a family was squabbling over politics at a Thanksgiving Day dinner, but when a girl put "Hello" on the stereo, everyone stopped arguing to sing along.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.