Adele breaks NZ record with new album

It's official - Adele has saved the music industry here and abroad

Having smashed sales records globally, the singer's album 25 has achieved the highest number for first week sales in New Zealand pop history.

Kiwi fans have bought 18,766 copies of 25, which includes 7209 digital versions.

The previous record holder was Susan Boyle's 2009 debut I Dreamed A Dream which sold 17, 435 copies.

Adele's New Zealand record company said 25 is already New Zealand's fourth biggest-selling album of 2015.

New albums released the previous week by Justin Bieber and One Direction, which reached number one and two respectively, sold less than gold status (7,500 sales).

It still remains unavailable on streaming services such as as Spotify and Apple Music.

The album has sold more than 2.4 million copies in the US since it was released last week, beating the first-week sales record set by Nsync's No Strings Attached in 2000.

Adele's previous album 21 sold more than 180,000 copies in New Zealand.