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Ed Sheeran smashes Official Chart records as ÷ is the fastest-selling album by a male artist ever
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There was little doubt Ed Sheeran would storm to Number 1 this week, but today (March 10) the Official Charts Company can confirm that the singer-songwriter’s new collection ÷ is the fastest-selling album by a male artist ever – and the records don’t stop there.
The highly anticipated third album (pronounced ‘Divide’) shifted a staggering 672,000 this week, giving Ed the highest opening week album sales in Official Chart history for a male artist and the third fastest-seller ever. Only Adele’s 25 (800,000) and Oasis’ Be Here Now (696,000) shifted more copies across their first seven days of release.
It’s been a phenomenal week for Ed and one that is rarely seen on the Official Chart. In its opening week, ÷ has sold more than the rest of the Official Albums Chart Top 500 combined this week, and, like for like, four times more than the fastest-selling album of 2016, David Bowie’s Blackstar (146,000 in week 1). Its total sales figure means it already awarded a 2x Platinum certification by the BPI.
Ed tells OfficialCharts.com: “Wow! What a phenomenal week. To every person who’s bought the album - thank you. I’m buzzing!”
MORE: View this week's Official Albums Chart Top 100
A British artist and record with incredibly broad appeal to fans of all generations and genres - the album has performed strongly across all formats this week. ÷ was driven predominantly by physical sales (62%), 26% from downloads and 12% streaming equivalent sales, the latter being a new record for the highest first-week streaming sales for an album ever. Ed's third LP accumulated 79,000 album streams, already overtaking Stormzy’s Gang Signs & Prayer that set a new record last week.
The album is Ed's third consecutive Number 1 album, following 2014's x and 2011's +. Both of those sit in the Official Albums Chart Top 5 today at 4 and 5 respectively.
MORE: The acts with an unbroken career streak of Number 1 studio albums
Ed has also scored the biggest one-week vinyl album sale in more than 20 years – amassing more sales on wax this week than any vinyl record of the last two decades has managed by traditional vinyl stars such as Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead and Noel Gallagher. Click here to view this week's Official Vinyl Albums Chart Top 40.
Ed has claimed the chart double as Shape Of You leads the way on the Official Singles Chart, notching up 141,000 combined chart sales. All 16 songs on ÷ feature inside the Top 20, something that no artist has come close to achieving before and is a reflection of the sheer scale of this release and its broad appeal.
MORE: Acts that have held Number 1 and 2 on the Official Singles Chart
Behind Shape Of You, Ed holds the entire Top 5 - the first time an act has ever achieved this - with Galway Girl (2), Castle On The Hill (3), Perfect (4) and New Man (5). And with nine songs in the Top 10 today, Ed sets a new record for landing the most Top 10 singles from one album, having scored 10 from ÷ so far (How Would You Feel (Paean) is Number 11 this week but has also charted inside the Top 10 previously). The previous record holder was Calvin Harris, who landed nine Top 10 singles from his 18 Months album.
MORE: The albums that spawned the most Top 10 singles
Ed also dominates on the Official Irish Singles and Irish Albums Charts, with tracks relating to Ed’s Irish heritage performing especially well. Galway Girl is the country’s Official Number 1 single this week, outmuscling Shape of You (2) by over 3,000. ÷ deluxe track Nancy Mulligan – the story of Ed Sheeran’s Irish grandparents – is at Number 3. ÷ itself is Number 1 on the Official Irish Albums Chart, outselling the rest of the Top 40 combined.
Ben Cook, President, Atlantic Records UK comments:
“Ed is truly one of a kind and ÷ is an incredible musical statement that only he could make; it’s passionate and contemporary, whilst being distinct and timeless. In the six years since we signed him nothing with Ed has been accidental – he’s constantly raised the bar, challenging us to match his drive and musical output at every step: ÷ is no different. It’s his best record to date and together we’ve innovated to create this historic, cultural moment. Ed has proven himself to be a rare modern day artist whose career continues to grow stratospherically and his music will resonate across generations for years to come. What a lad!”
Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts Company adds:
“Divide is a huge album, a genuine phenomenon. The impact it has made this week, both in the Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart (16 Top 20 singles and 3 Top 5 albums) is truly remarkable, and places Ed Sheeran in a firmament only occupied by Adele and Oasis in the past 30 years. Congratulations to Ed on an incredible success."
MORE: View this week's Official Singles Chart Top 100
New entries and high climbers
Aside from Ed Sheeran’s new entries, two more songs enter this week’s singles Top 40: Lorde’s new single Green Light debuts Number 28, and a new version of Little Mix’s No More Sad Songs featuring Machine Gun Kelly is at 39.
Over on the Official Albums Chart, eight more new albums land inside this week’s Top 40: Windy City by US bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss (6), Collabro’s third album Home (7) and Sleaford Mods’ 10th record English Tapas (12).
Further down, Daniel O’Donnell’s Back Home Again debuts at 14, Last Place by US indie band Grandaddy opens at 18, Volcano by British group Temples is at 23 We Are X by Japanese rockers X Japan enters at 27, and The Gold Collection by Irish musical duo Foster & Allen is at 34.
See this week's Top 100 Official Singles Chart Update in full
See this week's Top 100 Official Albums Chart Update in full
Look through our gallery of every Number 1 album of 2017 below:
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AncientKing
I think that the OCC Chart Rules have to change in order to make the chart more reliable and accurate, otherwise we will see every week a different artist with 10 different tracks in the Top 40. Today the SINGLES chart has become a "tracks / album cuts" chart. It's really annoying.
T
tom
Karen Carpenter would still wipe him up,,, very poor.
Sunshine Gal
well, then i'd like to be the first one to congrat ed on his history making achievement here in the uk! anytime someone tops everyone else @ something, all heck can break loose :D and congrats to ed on his history making feat on the bb hot 100 by being the 1st artist to debut 2 top 10 singles in the same week! as i always say, 'there's room for everyone' ;)
Alfred Lock
On the plus side not only has he wiped Justin Bieber's short lived record of occupying the most records in a Top 10 but get this he has also technically wiped the biggest act of all time THE BEATLES!!! from the record books when they occupied the Billboard 100's top 5 in 1964!! On the downside though it is now meaningless and dead overall much like the streaming generation of which I will never be part of.
Sunshine Gal
sorry mate what are you talking about? ed hasn't topped the beatles feat....the beatles still hold the all time record of most top 10's in a single week with 5. ed did debut 2 singles in the top 10 in the same week, that's a 'first-ever' achievement and he's the first artist in history to do that. but the beatles' feat is still intact. check the hot 100 and see for yourself ;) and btw, the beatles have many bb chart feats that are still unmatched, so they're doing fine :)
Sunshine Gal
this week's hot 100, ed is #1 with 'shape of you', but that's his only top 10 entry for this week.
Alfred Lock
As i said it was techincal but not official as The 60s were a time when all sales were physical and yes the Beatles have the most No.1 s by a group in the UK and US and 1 billion plus sales to date. PS Sargeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band is being reissued in a 50th anniversary Special Edition in June.
Sunshine Gal
well, ed never had 5 top 10 hits in the same week on bb...? the most he's had is 2 top 10's. for the week of 1/28/2017 *#1-shape of you & #6-castle on the hill*. that's the only time i can recall him having 2 top 10's in the same week. the beatles' feat is still intact ;). believe me mate, if ed topped their feat, you'd see it all over on bb :). do you know how to use the hot 100 archive? type that date and you'll see for yourself.
and that's cool about the sgt. peppers' album being re-issued, that's my fave beatles album! also, in 2014 bb ran a bunch of nice 50th anniversary articles on the beatles. don't know if you were able to check them out. but yes, the beatles have many amazing feats both on the hot 100 and bb 200 albums charts *the albums chart in 1964 had 150 entries*...i mean, when i did my beatles' throwbacks here on the uk article about a couple mos. ago, i saw the beatles albums jump from #98-1 in just 1 wk! *the album was 'beatles-65*
Mrs. Brooks
If Ed Sheeran's singles can spend multiple weeks at number 1, 2, 3 and 4 because of sales and streams, then his fans will be able to say Ed's record is more impressive than Justin's. However, both artists received a lot of help from streams, which is kind of unfair for other artist who broke records when the chart was based on sales only.
Adam Clark
The question that I think should be answered is what is the difference between album streams and track streams?
Are the individual track streams counted for the singles chart and then bundled together for the album chart as album streams, effectively counting them twice?
How do OCC know what counts as a track stream and what counts as an album stream?
Do you need to listen to the full album at once to count as one album stream?
I doubt it very much.
I guess streaming has twice the effect on the charts as sales do. Why didn't OCC add together the sales of singles in the years gone past and add them to the corresponding album sales? Because it's not right, that's why.
KS
Ken Smith
THE singles chart should be for those songs that have been officially designated as "single releases". All other tracks are thus ineligible. Those championing "this is what people are listening to" are crying . Gone are the days when you "bought" the Beatles latest single and played it to death on your 'gramophone' but did any of those plays "count" towards their already massive physical sales? NO. Why should it now just because we listen to music via a different medium that can be tracked?
I am an avid music fan and have been a collector of the UK's Official #1 singles for decades - owning physical copies of every one since its inception - but it's got silly now IMO.
There are a multitude of "charts" here, including a streaming chart. THAT is the chart which represents what people are listening to via Spotify, etc. It is not technically a "sales" chart. They have jigged the official singles chart so that every 1000 "listens" = I sale (who decided this arbitrary figure?) Yes, the artist gets paid (a pittance per play) but it is not a "sale" as such. Did the BBC radio 1 station log all plays (which it paid royalties for) from the time it started in 1967 and count those towards the Beebs chart on a Sunday evening? NO. Royalty payments for "airplay" didn't come into the equation for years but it existed.
Singles are singles, album tracks are not singles unless officially released as such. They've moved the goal posts and now this chart cannot be rightfully compared with the long history of UK singles charts. As for Ed Sheeran (whose music I love BTW) being landed with this "record number of entries in the TOP 20" - it's happened by default but it'll remain meaningless in my opinion.
tywifi
... The Guardian put it best: Ed Sheeran has 16 songs in the Top 20 – and it's a sign of how sick the charts are and proof, if it were needed, that the charts are now, essentially, meaningless.
Bengy
I thought Oasis Be Here Now sold 663K, as previously reported, and not 696,000. With sales of 672,000 Ed should be number 2 on that list. Apparently Oasis's tally was boosted by Panel Sales.
OCC 21/11/10 said,
"After spectacular first-day sales, partly fuelled by Take That’s high TV profile, Progress sold 518,601 copies. While falling short of the all-time record of 663,389 sales in a week (a figure corrected from an original estimate of 696,000) established by Oasis’ Be Here Now (a Thursday release) in 1997, it easily beats the 21st century record of 464,471 copies that Coldplay’s X&Y sold the week of its release in June 200".
Jason Lindley
OCC you should be ashamed of yourselves allowing this to happen, where's you news article allowing 16 songs by Ed in the top 20. You are killing the chart.
R
RockGolf
Nonsense and rubbish. If that's what Britons are listening to, why should it not chart? Charts are a true meritocracy, and not all songs or acts are equal.
Realistically, it's a shame there was no way to equally measure albums like Sgt Pepper, where nearly every track got airplay and several are classics without ever being released as singles.
Jason Lindley
it's a single chart, not a airplay chart or how many times a song is listened to. If that's not what the chart is anymore then it should not be called a singles chart. I totally understand that streaming is how people are consuming music but it needs to be measured in a different way. How can all tracks from an album, chart when most of these should of been counted towards the album chart especially as sales are low at present. This Is my opinion, to say that mine is rubbish is rude.
R
RockGolf
But the alternative is worse by far.
Look at the Canadian singles charts of the early 2000s, where Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" held the #1 position for 3 YEARS. Because it was the only "single" available in most record stores.
Rumours were that other singles in the top 40 were selling in the single digits, evidence being the frequent ties or 3 or more songs at the same position.
Jason Lindley
Candle in the wind was not no 1 in Canada for 3 years as you say it was in the top 20 for 3 years.That alternative you are speaking of on its way to happening, 1996 there were 193 top ten songs in 2016 there were only 76 plus only 11 number ones. Not the same as Canada but likely to head that way. Songs are spending silly lengths of time in the chart compared to previous years.
R
RockGolf
Agreed. It's a quandry.
Half the time songs appear on the charts one week then virtually disappear the next.
Half the time they stay on the charts forever. I'll be A-Team is still in the top 200.
It would be nice to go back to the old 8-16 weeks lifespan for most tracks, with it's greater variety of genres, but that's never going to happen.
So we need either charts that accurately reflect trends and tastes, or one's with arbitrary rules that create a fictional list.
Zoltán Oskovits
This is a sad week in the charts' history, that's for sure. How could you let this happen????
JJ
Jack James
King
Agenor Mark
OCC, the situation with Sheeran's album tracks is quite laughable. How can you call it "Singles Chart" when 70% of songs in top 10 (and top 20) are random album tracks? :-/
It's really disgraceful for your organisation.
Also Ed Sheeran just said that rules should be changed, which is quite hypocritical, since he would forever stay the only artist with this achievement.
Zoltán Oskovits
I agree 100%!!!!!! This is a joke, but a really bad one.
stumurmer
Couldn't agree more. Singles chart has been a bit of a joke for some time now but this is a new low! Maybe they should bring in a rule that a song should officially be designated as a single to be able to be considered for the chart?