Adele’s 21 falls out of the Top 40 for the first time since release

After 95 weeks on the Official Albums Chart, Adele’s landmark album, 21, has fallen out of the Top 40.

Since its release on January 24, 2011, Adele’s second studio album, 21, has dominated the Official Albums Chart, spending 71 consecutive weeks in the Top 10. However, yesterday (Sunday, November 25) it fell out of the Top 40 after a staggering 22 months, slipping eight places from Number 34 to Number 42.

According to the Official Charts Company’s sales data, in that time it has sold 4.5 million copies in the UK, become the biggest selling digital album of all time, and has overtaken Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms, and Michael Jackson’s equally iconic albums, Bad and Thriller, to become the UK’s fifth biggest selling album of all time.

One in five British households owns a copy of 21.