“Easy On Me” is Adele’s first single in five years and was dropped at midnight on October 15. It quickly amassed millions of streams within its first few hours of going live.

The new record set by the song surpasses a record previously held by K-pop giants, BTS. They held the record with 20.9 million streams for “Butter”.

On Twitter, Spotify wrote: “And just like that, Adele set a new record.”

And just like that, @Adele set a new record pic.twitter.com/WIz55hQmln

— Spotify (@Spotify) October 15, 2021

The song is also performing well on other platforms, too and at about 2 p.m. PT on Friday the music video had already racked up 36 million views and it was also at the top of the U.S. iTunes chart.

A few days ago (October 16), Adele also hinted to fans what they can expect to hear on her next album, 30, which will arrive on November 19. The new album will deal with Adele’s divorce from her husband Simon Konecki, which was finalized in March after the couple had been separated for nearly two years. The singer told Vogue that the album is her attempt to explain her divorce from Konecki to her 9-year-old son Angelo when he’s older.

When asked on Radio 2 about possible options for the first single, Adele told Zoe Ball there were “three”, before going on to describe how each sounded.

Adele explained: “There were three options for the first single. Very different, all of them. There’s obviously “Easy On Me”, then there’s another one…I got very into Goldfrapp and I was like, ‘I can do this music too!’. I can do one song, I definitely couldn’t pull off what Alison [Goldfrapp does], she’s the absolute Queen. And there’s another one that’s very 70s, piano singer-songwritery. Just very Carpenters, very Elton [John].”

You can hear “Easy On Me” below:

Adele hasn’t just broken records with this latest release however as it was recently announced that Adele’s second album 21 was ranked number one in BBC Radio 2’s Top 30 Best-Selling Albums.

The album sat outside the Top 10 in the beginning of the week, but then gained 6,866 sales which secured his position for another week. Capaldi’s album beat the other two competitors which were Amy Macdonald’s ‘The Human Demands‘ and Black Stone Cherry’s ‘The Human Condition.’

The album has spent 77 weeks in the U.K. top ten since it came out, absolutely unbelievable to see. Thanks team ❤️ https://t.co/I3KodTsC25

— i don’t even know who lewis capaldi is (@LewisCapaldi) November 6, 2020

EMI MD Clive Cawley said to NME, ““77 weeks in the Top 10, who’d have thought that was even possible for an artist these days? To hit that landmark and to topple that Ed Sheeran chap – who’s had a few hits in his day – is an eye-watering achievement. I feel we’re running out of quotes about what an exceptional and unique artist Lewis really is.”

He continued, “I believe we only have Simon & Garfunkel ahead of us now. But I think we’ll all happily concede to their timeless and incredible legacy and just see how much further we can keep this run going for – as a bit of fun as much as anything. Divinely inspired stuff.” Having already passed over a million sales, ‘Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent’ was the biggest selling album of last year at the half way mark. The debut LP by Capaldi features chart topping singles such as ‘Someone you loved‘ and ‘Before You Go.’ 

Although Capaldi’s album has spent longer in the charts than Ed Sheeran’s 2017 album ‘Divide’, it has a way to go before it beats the overall album sales figures. To date, Sheeran’s album was number No.1 for 20 weeks, compared with Capaldi’s which had 10 at the number 1 spot. There are only 9 other albums that have ran for longer in the Top 10 album charts. All of these were soundtrack albums except from Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ which remained in the top 10 for 92 weeks.

Along with his latest achievement, Capaldi won ‘The Brits Critics Choice Award,’ in 2019 and his hit song, ‘Someone You Loved’ spent 7 weeks at the top of the charts in the UK, Europe and the US. Capaldi is modest when it comes to his success.

He told NME in a recent interview, “When I read my interviews back, I always think if I wasn’t me I’d think: ‘you’re full of shite’.” He continued, “Like, stop saying you can’t believe it. You can believe it! But it is so surreal and it seems like almost quarterly it kicks up a notch. Like, yesterday with the Grammys, yet again all this shit’s getting more and more mental, more beyond belief.”

There is no doubt that Lewis Capaldi is one of the hardest working touring artists having performed over 250 shows last year including an outstanding performance at Glastonbury. Last week he performed for the ‘I’m Lovin It’ virtual gig presented by Macdonalds, alongside other artists such as Stormzy and Jess Glynne. There is no doubt that Capladi’s latest record achievement affirms his dedication to his music and is well and truly deserved.