Most of the promotion for the album has been carried out over the internet, with websites around the world, including BBC Radio 1, carrying tracks from the album.
Released in the UK on Monday, the band's fourth album, Kid A, sold 55,000 copies on its first day in the shops.
It racked up one of the biggest first day sales of the year, and shifted more copies than all of the other top ten albums combined.
With critics divided on the experimental feel of the new work, fans are clearly eager to make up their own minds.
Their last album, OK Computer, was hailed by critics as a rock landmark and, without the benefit of a hit single, sold 1.7m copies.
Minimal promotion
The band have minimised their own involvement in marketing the new album, conducting no photo shoots and giving few interviews.
Chart expert Jason Legg of HMV said: "It's a fantastic first day's sale for any act, and particularly for one which has done so little promotion."
Most of the promotion for the album has been carried out over the internet, with websites around the world, including BBC Radio 1, carrying tracks from the album.
In addition music websites such as NME.com and Dotmusic have hosted "i-blips" - mini-animations designed to replace the conventional promotional video.
They have also decided to release no singles from Kid A.
Faulty CDs
European sales were slowed on Monday when 150,000 faulty CD copies of the album were recalled by record company EMI.
Discs sent to Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium were affected by a mastering error.
CDs start with a 40 second live recording of a different band - Pearl Jam - according to a fan site.
Pressing problems have also caused distribution delays in Australia and New Zealand.
The band play three dates of their whistle-stop world tour in Dublin this weekend, before moving onto North America at the end of October.
Tickets continue to sell in record time - the initial batch of tickets to their Los Angeles appearances sold out in three minutes.