Adele Best Selling Album: '21' Topped Sales Two Years in a Row

Adele topped the charts in 2012 with the bestselling album two years in a row.

Her 2011 album  "21" was the top seller last year as well as the year before marking the first time that one album has reigned for two consecutive years, according to figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan.

"It's a sort of a once-in-a-lifetime album," Keith Caulfield, associate director of charts at Billboard, told Reuters about Adele's achievement. "Only a few of these albums come along in history."

"21" sold 4.4 million copies in the United States last year, after selling 5.8 million in 2011.

"It's really the right combination of artistry and hit singles," Caulfield said about the right chemistry it took to make the album a hit. "She really crossed over from pop to Latin to adult contemporary to dance," he added. "Young and old consumers bought it, and because of its mixture of fans, she was able to sell it as well as she did."

The record contains a few of the 24-year-old singer's top hits such as "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You."

Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991 and made the announcement that Adele is the first to dominate two years in a row since the system was put in place.

Apart from her success from Nielsen, Adele took home six Grammy Awards last year for her album.

The second-biggest album of 2012 was Taylor Swift's "Red" (Big Machine), with 3.1 million sales. It is also the top album on the latest weekly Billboard album chart, according to Rolling Stone Magazine.

The British boy band One Direction scored two slots in the year-end chart. "Up All Night," released in March, reached No. 3 with 1.6 million sales; "Take Me Home," from November, is No. 5 with 1.3 million. The fourth-biggest album of the yearwas Mumford & Sons' "Babel" with almost 1.5 million copies sold.