The Arctic Monkey’s second album is set to become the fastest selling new release of the year so far, having sold 85,000 copies on its first day on the shelves, outselling their nearest rival, Avril Lavigne, by ten to one.

It won’t beat the record-breaking 360,000 sales their debut notched up in its first week, though Favourite Worst Nightmare is expected to beat the current leaders, Kaiser Chiefs, whose week-one sales for their second album, Yours Truly, Angry Mob reached 151,000.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo told the BBC, “It was always going to be next to impossible to match or beat the phenomenal day-one sales of Whatever People Say I Am… which proved to be one of the media stories of 2006, but coming this close is a fantastic result, which underlines the band’s status as the UK’s number rock act. People are buying this album not because of any media hype, but because it’s had great reviews and they can’t wait to hear it.”