Vinyl just had its biggest week of sales in the United States since 1991

Vinyl sales have been on the rise in recent years, and when it comes to weekly sales, the ever-popular format has just had its biggest week since 1991.
For the week ending December 23, Billboard reported that over 2.11 million vinyl records have been sold in America, largely propelled by the holiday season and countless options available among the overwhelming amount of new albums. released in 2021 as well as countless re-releases of classics. .
This is the highest weekly vinyl sales figure since the start of the Nielsen Soundscan era of music sales tracking in 1991 and represents a 45% increase from the 1.46 million vinyl records sold the previous week.
Adèle’s new album, 30, had 59,000 vinyl copies in that most recent week and it was the successful singer’s fifth consecutive week to top Billboard’s weekly vinyl albums chart. In total, 30, which was released on November 19, racked up 293,000 copies sold on vinyl in the United States and, as those numbers suggest, it was the best-selling vinyl record of 2021.
Here are some other fun 2021 vinyl stats from Billboard:
– The week ending December 23 was the sixth consecutive week of more than one million vinyl sales in the United States, and the eighth time that figure has been eclipsed in 2021. Since 1991, this feat had only occurred six times before this year.
– Vinyl sales accounted for half – 50% – of all album sales (digital and physical) in the United States and 57% of all physical sales for the week ending December 23.
It’s another promising trend for the 90-year-old vinyl format, which topped CD sales for the first time last year.
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