Less than 33 weeks after XL released the singer's second album on January 24, 21 has hit a sales landmark appropriately only previously reached by 21 other albums in the UK. But none of these other recordings managed to sell as many copies anywhere near as quickly as Adele has.

It was as recently as the latter part of April that Music Week was celebrating the Adele album's two-millionth domestic sale as it equalled a 21st-century record set by Dido's ...