Adele smashes Official Charts records with new single 'Hello'

Congratulations to Adele, who makes a triumphant return to the Official Singles Chart with her new single 'Hello' this week.

The track’s opening week combined sales are a staggering 333,000, making it the biggest No.1 single in three years, since James Arthur’s X Factor winner’s single 'Impossible' (490,000 sales) in December 2012.

The combined sales figure is made up of a huge 259,000 downloads plus a record-breaking, staggering 7.32 million streams, smashing the previous streaming record held by Justin Bieber’s 'What Do You Mean?' by almost double. Bieber previously held the record with 3.87 million plays in a week last month.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company comments: "The success of Hello this week underlines what an extraordinary artist Adele is - a once in a generation artist, who appeals to kids, teenagers, mums, dads, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandads. To make such an impact, across both streams and sales, is the sign of a truly universally popular artist.”

'Hello' becomes Adele’s second Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart, after 2011’s 'Someone Like You'.

Meanwhile, Justin Bieber is forced to settle for this week’s second highest new entry with his latest track 'Sorry'. However the song shifted an impressive 102,000 combined sales in its opening week, including a massive 4.48 million streams, beating his own streaming record.

The rest of this week’s Top 5 is made up of Drake’s 'Hotline Bling' at 3, Sam Smith’s 'Writing’s On The Wall', which rebounds seven places to No.4, and The Weeknd’s 'The Hills' is at 5.

Further down this week’s tally, MNEK and Zara Larsson’s 'Never Forget You' reaches a new peak at No.11 for its fourth week in the Top 40, Macklemore jumps two spots to 14 with 'Downtown', and Little Mix’s 'Love Me Like You' climbs four spots to 28.

Watch Adele's music video for 'Hello' here: