Vinyl Had Its Highest Sales In 30 Years Last Week

With over two million vinyl LPs sold, the week ending December 23rd marks the highest-selling week for vinyl since 1991.

Vinyl is back in style. Nearly a month after Adele caused a massive delay in record-pressing plants after the release of 30, vinyl records have made another historic feat. Via MRC Data, Billboard reported that 2.11 million vinyl were sold last week, just in time for the holidays and making the biggest sales week for vinyl since 1991.

In a separate Billboard report, this was an increase from 2020, when 1.842 million LPs were sold during the week ending December 24th.

With 30 selling 16,700 copies on wax in its first week, the Adele album has gone on to selling 293,000 in the U.S., becoming the highest-selling vinyl record of 2021. Trailing Adele is Billie Eilish, whose second studio album Happier Than Ever debuted with 73,000 copies in its first week and Taylor Swift whose Red (Taylor's Version) moved 114,000 LPs in its first week. Although Adele continues to hold No. 1 on Billboard's Top Album Sales Chart, Swift had the best debut vinyl week of 2021.

Released to streaming platforms in December of last year, Kid Cudi's Man On The Moon III: The Chosen was released to vinyl for the first time this month. According to Billboard, the album sold 42,000 copies during the week of December 17th, 41,500 of which were on vinyl.

This week, Cudi reacted to the surprise on Twitter:

Last year, Pitchfork argued that vinyl was nearing a hiatus due to coronavirus, but at the rate that records are being sold, the LP format is here to stay.