Wednesday 3rd October 2012 by Michael Baggs

Tags: Mumford & Sons

After topping the UK album charts this week, Mumford & Sons are today celebrating similar success stateside, with Babel hitting the US No.1 spot - and breaking sales records for 2012.

Babel sold 600,000 copies in its week of release in America, hitting No.1 with ease. The album is the band's first stateside chart topper and is the fastest selling record in the US this year. It has also been named the biggest selling rock album since 2008.

"It's not sports day. It's not a competition," says Ted Dwayne of the band in an interview with the BBC. "But it's great and weird. It's so weird with these numbers."

"When we started the band we were just mates who enjoyed playing music together and we just tried to do as much as we could and suddenly found ourselves doing nothing else at all. To find ourselves here is a huge blessing," he continued. "It's so bizarre - the people you share the charts with.

"It's just another world really."

In doing so, the album scores the largest debut sales week of 2012, the biggest sales week for a rock album since 2008. Billboard report the full list of Babel's achievements are as below.

Largest Debut Sales Week of 2012
Biggest Sales Week for a Rock Album Since 2008
Biggest Sales Week for RED Distribution
Second Largest Sales Week of 2012
Second Largest Sales Week for an Independently Distributed Album in SoundScan History
Second Largest Digital Sales Week for an Album
Sixth-Straight Year an Indie Album Has Hit No. 1

Babel is currently No.1 in the UK and America. The band perform a huge UK tour in December of this year. For more information visit Gigwise Gig Tickets.

Mumford & Sons 'Tour of Two Halves' dates are:

21st November – Princess Theatre, Torquay
22nd November – Guildhall, Portsmouth
23rd November – Regent Theatre, Ipswich
25th November – Caird Hall, Dundee
26th November – The Sands Centre, Carlisle
27th November – Venue Cymru, Llandudno
4th December – Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle
5th December – SECC, Glasgow
7th December – LG Arena, Birmingham
10th December - Arena, Manchester
11th December – O2 Arena, London
13th December – CIA, Cardiff
15th December – Odyssey Arena, Belfast
16th December – The O2, Dublin

Below: Mumford & Sons - their best live moments