Adele's 25 album chases records with 300,000 first day UK sales

The hotly-anticipated 25 album by Hello chanteuse Adele looks set to make UK history as it notched up 300,000 sales on its release date yesterday (20 November). After just 24 hours on sale, by midnight last night it was looking certain to join an exclusive club occupied by Oasis' Be Here Now and Take That's Progress in achieving more than 500,000 sales in its first week of release.

Be Here Now, released in August 1997 still holds the record for 695,761 sales in its first week of release, but unlike the new offering from Adele that has received almost universal praise, it was savaged by the critics on its release with many accusing it of being over-produced. Take That's Progress just scraped the half-a-million sales tally for its first week as 518,601 fans showed their support for the man band fronted by Gary Barlow.

However, unlike 25, Be Here Now was released on a Thursday, which only gave the album three days of sales to add to its impressive total, due to a different chart measurement period when it was released. In comparison, the Oasis album sold 424,000 copies in its first day, while Take That sold 217,500.

Martin Talbot, the chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: "Adele truly is a once in a generation artist. Her appeal spans age groups and genres, from children to teenagers, right through to mums and dads, uncles and aunties. With this mammoth first-day sales tally, Adele has taken a further step towards greatness. Over the next few days we will find out whether it can pass the magic half a million sales mark."

25 is the singer's third album after her debut 19, which sold 2.2m copies in the UK, and 21 that sold 4.8m copies and is the second biggest studio album in UK music history, behind The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Speaking on her official Twitter page yesterday Adele said: "I am so overwhelmed and grateful to be able to even put another record out, and put it out how I want. I hope you enjoy the record as much as I enjoyed making it for you."

Hello, Adele's first single from 25, has now sold 512,000 downloads and achieved 21.4m audio streams. The singer has refused to make her new album available on music streaming services including Spotify and Apple Music.

The full first-week sales tally for 25 will be finalised next Friday, with the Official Albums Chart is announced on the UK's BBC Radio 1 by Greg James, from 4pm-6pm.