Ed Sheeran tops first ever Official Albums Streaming Chart

Ed Sheeran has hit Number 1 on the first ever Official Albums Streaming Chart.

The singer-songwriter’s second studio album X notched up 3,400 streams to become the most-streamed record of the week.

Elsewhere on the chart, Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour is at 2. Streams of the LP, which is Number 1 on this week’s Official Albums Chart – contributed to 7% of its combined chart sales (2,900 streams).

In contrast, Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, which is at Number 3, saw its 2,300 streams contribute to 30% of its chart sales last week.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, Ariana Grande’s My Everything is at 6, Royal Blood – who have stormed back up the charts following their appearance at last week’s BRIT Awards – are at 7 with their self-titled debut, and Ed Sheeran’s + completes the Top 10.

From last week onwards, the Official Albums Chart is ranked by combined chart sales, made up by adding together physical sales, download sales and an album streams factor for each album. This factor is created by taking the track streams from each album and converting them to albums at a rate of 1000:1 – full details of the methodology can be found here.

View the first ever Official Albums Streaming Chart Top 100 here