Fans scooped up 1.11 million copies of her much-hyped release "Born This Way" during the week ended May 29, with a bit of help from a hugely popular 99-cent promotion by online retailer Amazon.com Inc .
It marks the biggest first-week sales total since rapper 50 Cent's "The Massacre" debuted to 1.14 million copies in March 2005. The last album to break the million mark was country starlet Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," which started with 1.01 million copies last November. Boy band 'N Sync holds the first-week record with 2.4 million copies for its 2000 album "No Strings Attached."
Billboard estimated that Amazon downloads accounted for upward of 440,000 downloads of "Born This Way." Overall digital downloads totaled a record-breaking 662,000 copies, Billboard said.
Lady Gaga records for Interscope Records, a unit of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group. Her 2008 debut album "The Fame" peaked at No. 2 and has sold 4.2 million copies to date in the United States. An eight-track follow-up EP titled "The Fame Monster" reached No. 5 and has sold 1.5 million copies.
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