Beyonce’s new album has become the fastest-ever seller on iTunes with more than 800,000 downloads in its first three days.

The self-titled album, the US superstar’s fifth, was released out of the blue on Friday and includes 14 songs, 17 videos, and collaborations with husband Jay Z, Drake and Frank Ocean.

An Apple spokeswoman said the iTunes Store sold 828,773 albums in three days.

Hit-maker: Beyonce Knowles performs during the Pepsi Super Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana

On the day of its release, iTunes – which is Apple’s music download division – said the release was ‘an unprecedented strategic move by the artist to deliver music and visual content directly to her fans when she wants to and how she wants to, with no filter’.

With no ‘middle man’, fans are being encouraged to form their own opinions after listening to and watching the tracks.

Beyonce added: ‘I didn’t want to release my music the way I’ve done it. I am bored with that. I feel like I am able to speak directly to my fans. There’s so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fans.

‘I felt like I didn’t want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it’s ready and from me to my fans.’

Game-changer: iTunes described Beyonce’s decision to secretly release her album as ‘an unprecedented move’

The undisputed queen: Beyonce is set to hit the number one spot on Billboard with new self-titled album, pictured performing in Chicago on Friday

The singer’s fifth solo album opted out of the standard three month marathon of promotional stints, reviews, and dropping individual singles.

Instead, the trend setter released the entire album in one fell swoop without any fanfare.

Currently the offering is an iTunes exclusive with a retail price of $15.99 with 14 tracks, a release date for the physical CD has yet to be announced.

When she reached the 430,000 over the weekend she was already on the cusp of ranking near Taylor Swift’s record breaking 1.2 million copies for Red in its first week.

Reason to celebrate: The 32-year-old is set for number one after hitting over 430,000 sales so far

Big show: The star is still on her Ms Carter tour

Meanwhile Beyonce brought music giant iTunes to its knees on Friday night as it buckled under the strain of her fans rushing to download her 5th album which she secretly launched at midnight.

Two versions of the self-titled album – one featuring explicit language and another family-friendly version – are currently ranked No.1 and 2 of the iTunes albums chart.

Pop stars react to Beyonce’s surprise album

Showcase: Beyonce stars in seventeen videos for her surprise visual album, with the videos shot everywhere from Brazil to her hometown of Houston

Immediately after spreading the news of the album launch, Twitter was awash with frustrated tweets from fans unable to download it.

The social media giant said their early data shows mentions of Beyonce spiked by 500,000-plus tweets after the stealth release.

It said the news generated more than 1.2million tweets in 12 hours, with 5,300 tweets every minute at the height of the hysteria.

The hysteria that ensued was compounded by the fact that Beyonce’s surprise new music came with a collection of 17 music videos which she secretly filmed in Houston, New York City, Paris, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro.

Not only did the unexpected release cause iTunes to temporarily crash due to the overload of eager fans, the singer is now the envy of record companies across the world after managing to keep the much anticipated album a complete secret

Meanwhile, the singing sensation is currently on her Mrs Carter World Tour where she has enraptured fans with her dazzling stage performances.

Whilst Beyoncé is currently dominating the music world, she and her husband Jay Z are taking part in a 22-day vegan diet cleanse which they started on the rapper’s 44th birthday on December 4.

And impressively despite their demanding work schedules the duo have managed to stick to their strict animal free diets.