Beyonce Knowles’ New Album Sells 430,000 Copies In Just Over 24 Hours

Beyonce Knowles reportedly sold over 430,000 copies of her exclusive iTunes album in just over a day. In fact, it’s already the best-selling female debut of the year.

While her contemporaries struggle to move a fraction of that total in a week’s time, the singer proved that good music will sell buckets even without a strong marketing push. According to Billboard, Knowles latest endeavor is presently expected to top the charts next week.

If sales continue to stay as strong as they’ve been over the past few days, analysts predict Beyonce’s “visual” album could cross the 600,000 by Sunday evening. This would easily push the collection of tunes to the very top of the Billboard 200.

Just Jared explains that Beyonce Knowles’ surprise album sold 80,000 copies between 9 pm and midnight PT. Things didn’t slow down at all as Friday rolled around. In just a single day, the singer had reportedly moved an additional 350,000 copies. This pushes the total to 430,000 in a little over 24 hours.

Not surprisingly, sales of Beyonce’s songs should stay strong over the weekend. As good word of mouth continues to spread on countless social media sites, many folks will gladly shell out their hard-earned cash to snag the album from iTunes. The album currently sells for $15.99.

Those of you who aren’t interested in picking up the entire batch of songs in one fell swoop can grab the tracks individually on December 20. Although Beyonce Knowles and Sony Records intend to release the tracks and videos on CD and DVD down the road, there isn’t an official date to speak of at the moment.

As of this writing, fans of the singer will have to settle for the iTunes version of the new album. Since so many people were willing to grab the songs as soon as they were available to purchase, the collection found its way to the top of the iTunes charts in over 100 countries. Again, this was accomplished with no promotion whatsoever.

Since critics didn’t get advance copies of the tracks ahead of its release, official reviews of Knowles’ latest creation have slowly trickled out. Judging from the write-ups posted at Metacritic, most reviewers seem to really enjoy what Beyonce and her collaborators put together. The album currently has a score of 85.

The New York Times wrote:

“The songs are alert to the current sound of clubs and radio, but not trapped by it; the refrains are terse and direct, but what happens between them isn’t formulaic. And while Beyoncé constructed the songs with a phalanx of collaborators, they all know better than to eclipse her creamy, soulful voice.”

What do you think about Beyonce Knowles’ latest album?