Adele's '25' Tops Billboard 3rd Week In A Row

(Reuters) -- Adele's record-breaking new album "25" sold another 728,000 copies last week, easily trumping Coldplay's new release, "A Head Full of Dreams," to retain the top spot on the Billboard 200 album charts for a third week.

Coldplay, which like Adele initially held back its album from streaming service Spotify and other free platforms, sold some 209,000 copies in its debut week, according to data from Nielsen Music on Monday.

The British rock band, which is to play the coveted halftime show at the 2016 Super Bowl in February, said last week it would stream "A Head Full of Dreams" on Spotify in its second week of release.

Adele's "25," already the biggest selling album in the U.S. for 2015, has sold some 5.19 million copies since its Nov. 20 release.

The singer on Monday announced her first North American tour in five years. She will play 56 dates starting in July in St. Paul, Minnesota and end on Nov. 15 in Mexico City. Her UK and European tour is already sold out.

The strong showing by Adele and Coldplay pushed Justin Bieber's "Purpose" into 3rd place on the Billboard 200, with about 150,000 copies sold for the week. A cappella group Pentatonix slipped to 4th place with "That's Christmas To Me."

The Billboard 200 chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).

New entries by rappers G-Eazy ("When It's Dark Out") and Rick Ross ("Black Market") landed at No. 5 and 6, respectively. South African-born Australian actor and singer Troye Sivan, 20, took 7th place with his album "Blue Neighborhood."

On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online download sales, Adele's single "Hello" was ousted from the No.1 spot by Jordan Smith, a finalist on TV competition show "The Voice," whose rendition of the Queen classic "Somebody to Love" sold more than 164,000 copies compared with 158,000 for "Hello."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Alan Crosby)