Adele had world's most popular album of 2021

Adele's album, 30, was the best-selling record of 2021, according to official figures.

The singer's fourth album sold five million copies in just two months.

Meanwhile, The Weeknd's Save Your Tears was the most popular single and was streamed 2.15 billion times.

The figures come from the IFPI, the organisation that represents the recorded music industry worldwide.

It's the second year in a row that the Canadian popstar has had the world's most popular song.

In 2020, The Weeknd's single Blinding Lights topped the charts. It's so popular that it's still in the top 10.

There was some British representation on the top singles list too. Dua Lipa's single, Levitating, was the third most popular song in the world last year.

Last week, the IFPI announced that the South Korean pop band, BTS, were the best-selling overall act of 2021 thanks to a combination of strong albums sales and three huge hit singles - Butter, Permission To Dance and My Universe.

In 2020, they became the first ever non-English speaking act to top the IFPI's charts.

How do the charts work?

BTS were the best selling act of 2021

The IFPI work out the most popular music artists in the world by tallying together downloads, streams and physical purchases worldwide.

This method normally tends to favour records from the start of the year, because they have more time to get more sales.

For example, all of the top 10 singles were released before June 2021.

However, Adele has surprised lots of industry experts because she's managed to beat the competition after just six weeks of release.

There are three British artists in the top 10 albums of 2021 - Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa and Harry Styles.