Biggest-selling digital album in US and UK

Adele (UK, b. Adele Adkins) raised the bar for digital album sales in both the US and the UK in 2011. Within five months of its February 2011 release, 21 had eclipsed Eminem’s Recovery – the first album to sell one million digital copies in the US – as the biggest-selling digital album in US chart history, with sales of 1.1 million units. By the end of the year, 21’s digital sales had risen to an unprecedented 1.8 million. 21’s digital sales had risen to more than 700,000 in the UK by the end of 2011, where it replaced Lady Gaga’s The Fame as the biggest-selling digital album on record in March 2011. Adele is the first female, the first UK artist and the fastest to reach digital sales of one million in the US. Although precise digital sales figures are not always available, Music Week reported that 21 had sold 747,926 digital copies in the UK on 28 January 2011.