Arctic Monkeys debut 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' may become more than just the fastest selling indie rock debut ever in recorded history; it might be the fastest selling debut in recorded history full stop.
The album sold 118, 501 copies on the first day alone, which is more than debut albums from Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand sold in their first week. It's now thought that sales could exceed the 306,631 copy debut sales record set by reality show assisted pop-purveyors Hear'Say five years ago.
HMV's head of music Phil Penman told CMU: "We knew day one sales were going to be big, but nobody expected them to be this huge. It's as if they had won the X Factor, but achieving the same kind of sales without the benefit of a massive TV audience. They're well on their way to having the first million-selling album of 2006. If it continues to sell at this rate, there's even a danger shops could sell out by the end of the week."