Ed Sheeran Claims No.1 Biggest Album and Song in Official Charts Streaming Era
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Loading... - Edrice Sabry
- 22 Jul 2024
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This month marks a decade since streaming was incorporated into the UK’s Official Chart. Back in July 2014, the first Official Singles Chart based on a combination of sales and streams was published. "Problem" by Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea was the inaugural number one, achieving 112,900 chart units through 105,560 downloads, 200 physical copies, and 712,500 streams.
Ed Sheeran: The King of Streaming
Ed Sheeran has been crowned the 'king of the streaming era' with his 2017 album Divide and its lead single, "Shape of You," named the biggest album and song since streams became part of the chart calculations. Divide is a record-breaking album, with six songs entering the Top 20 upon release, prompting a rule change to limit entries to a maximum of three per artist. The album has amassed 4.26 million chart units, combining streaming-equivalent and pure sales, and stands as the most-streamed album of all time in the UK.
"Shape of You" boasts 6.29 million chart units, consisting of 864,000 downloads and 627.27 million streams. Sheeran also holds the second and third most-streamed songs in the UK with "Shape of You" and "Perfect," eight of the Top 40 most-downloaded songs of the last decade, and the highest weekly video streams record with "Bad Habits," which achieved 8.79 million views in July 2021.
Chart-Topping Moments in the Streaming Era
Here are some significant milestones from the Official Charts streaming era:
- Biggest song (sales and streams combined): Ed Sheeran – "Shape of You": 6,291,000 units
- Biggest album (sales and streams combined): Ed Sheeran – Divide: 4,263,000 units
- Most streamed song (audio and video streams): Lewis Capaldi – "Someone You Loved": 697,500,000 streams
- Most streamed album (audio and video streams): Ed Sheeran – Divide: 1,790,000 streams
- Most streamed video: Pinkfong – "Baby Shark": 271,968,000 streams
- Best-selling song (downloads and physical): Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – "Uptown Funk": 1,700,000 units
- Best-selling album (downloads and physical sales): Adele – 25: 3,391,000 units
- Most UK total streams in a week (audio and video streams): Adele – "Easy On Me" (Week 42, 2022): 24,000,000 streams
- Most UK video streams in a week (video streams only): Ed Sheeran – "Bad Habits" (Week 26, 2021): 8,792,000 streams
- Most downloaded single: Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars – "Uptown Funk": 1,698,000 downloads
Celebrating a Decade of Streaming
"We are delighted to be celebrating this exciting landmark for the Official Charts, 10 years since the way we measured music fandom changed forever," said Martin Talbot, Official Charts CEO. "Streaming has ushered in an era of unlimited choice of music, deliverable through the widest range of methods – as physical discs, permanent downloads, audio streams or video plays. It is also important to celebrate Ed Sheeran too, for delivering both the biggest track and biggest album of the new era. What a decade it has been for the Suffolk-raised superstar. Congratulations Ed!"
Min-seok Kim, CEO of Baby Shark creators The Pinkfong Company, added, "We are thrilled and honored that Baby Shark has become the most streamed video in the UK Official Charts streaming era. We’re grateful for this incredible milestone and the love from our UK fans for the last 10 years."
Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive, highlighted the transformative impact of streaming: "Streaming has transformed how music is discovered and enjoyed by fans and has enabled many more artists to thrive. Such has been its remarkable impact, success for artists is now measured in the hundreds of millions and even billions of streams annually."
As we celebrate this milestone, it's clear that streaming has reshaped the music landscape, offering unprecedented access and opportunities for artists and fans alike.
