Take That’s new album The Circus sold 133,000 on its first 24 hours of release yesterday, despite the troubles besetting Woolworths and its CD distribution arm.

The debut is the biggest of the year, as the pop act overhauled Coldplay’s 125,000 first day sales for Viva La Vida in June.

The sales total means that The Circus is almost certain to hit No 1 this week — on track to surpass 300,000 sales — easily seeing off competition from Britney Spears new album, confusingly called Circus, which also debuted on Monday.

Take That became major stars in the 1990s with hits such as Back for Good, and Never Forget, but broke up in 1996 after Robbie Williams left. The remaining four members reformed, without Williams, in 2006, returning to the top of the charts with the Beautiful World album.

The promising sales will be a welcome relief for Take That’s record label, Polydor, part of Universal Music. Last week was chaos for the label after the economic crisis hit Woolworths, and its distributor, which also stocks J Sainsbury, Morrison’s and other retailers with CDs, amounting to a third of the music market.

Music industry insiders said that Take That “were outselling all other releases by 3/4/5 to 1 depending on which retailer you ask”. Britney Spears suffered over the weekend, with criticism for bad lip-synching when she performed on the X Factor on Saturday, and disappointing fans by failing to perform at nightclub G-A-Y later that evening.

Female-friendly entertainment titles have been dominating sales in run up to Christmas, with the DVD of Mamma Mia! the musicial film selling 1.67 million on its first day, an all time record — more than ten times Take That’s sales.

Explore Music

• CD Reviews

• Live Reviews

• Classical

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010