One Direction vs Justin Bieber: How this week's album chart race was won

It was a close one! We track the battle between 1D and Biebs for Official Albums Chart Number 1

Following a ferocious battle between the global pop icons, One Direction has dramatically pipped Justin Bieber to Number 1 in this week’s Official Albums Chart.

One Direction’s album Made in the AM registered 93,189 chart sales for today’s Official Albums chart, just under 3,000 ahead of the 90,596 registered by Justin Bieber’s Purpose album.

The victory for One Direction’s album ends a hugely exciting race to the top, which saw the lead between Made in the AM and Purpose narrowing through the week.

While on Monday, the gap lay at 15,000 chart sales, this had halved to almost 8,000 yesterday and then to just under 3,000 today.

The battle also resulted in both acts recording the two biggest one week totals of the year so far, topping Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds 89,000 first week tally for Chasing Yesterday in March and the second week total of Elvis’ Presley’s If I Can Dream, which scored 88,603 earlier this month.

	TITLE	ARTIST	CHART SALES	WHEN
1	MADE IN THE A.M.	ONE DIRECTION	93,189	NOVEMBER
2	PURPOSE	JUSTIN BIEBER	90,596	NOVEMBER
3	CHASING YESTERDAY	NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS	89,110	MARCH
4	IF I CAN DREAM	ELVIS PRESLEY	88,603	NOVEMBER
5	WILDER MIND	MUMFORD & SONS	31,351	MAY