The Top 10 biggest selling X Factor debut singles and albums revealed!

Ahead of tonight’s X Factor final, the Official Charts Company reveal the Top 10 biggest selling debut singles and debut albums by all of the X Factor acts to date.

Later this evening, Christopher Maloney, Jahmene Douglas and James Arthur will begin battling it out to win the 2012 series of the X Factor, and a once-in-a-lifetime chance of a major label recording contract.

However, according to the Official Charts Company’s analysis of all the show’s former contestants, they could all already be winners. The Top 10 biggest selling debut singles and albums by previous X Factor stars is dominated exclusively by acts who made it into the final three of each year’s competition.

2008 winner Alexandra Burke’s Hallelujah is the biggest selling debut single by an X Factor act, having sold 1.2 million copies to date. There have only been 123 million selling singles in the 60 year history of the Official Singles Chart, and X Factor stars' debut singles account for three of them (four if you include Leona Lewis' follow-up single, Bleeding Love); the other two are 2005 winner Shayne Ward’s That’s My Goal (which is Number 2 in our countdown with sales of 1.1 million sales to date), and 2010 winner Matt Cardle’s When We Collide (Number 3 in our countdown with over a million sales). The biggest selling debut single by a runner up is What Makes You Beautiful (Number 6) by One Direction, who came third in 2010’s competition, while debut releases by JLS (who came second in 2008), and Olly Murs (who came second in 2009), also make it into the Top 10.

The biggest selling debut album by an X Factor contestant is 2006 winner Leona Lewis’ Spirit, which has sold over 3 million copies to date. JLS’ self-title debut is at Number 2 with sales of over 1.4 million copies, while Alexandra Burke’s Overcome is at Number 3 with sales of 816,000 copies. The Top 5 is completed by One Direction’s Up All Night (777,000 sales to date) and Olly Murs’ self-titled debut album (761,000 sales).

The full Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Singles And Albums are as follows:

The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Singles

	TRACK TITLE	ARTIST	X FACTOR YEAR	FINAL PLACING	SALES TO DATE
01	Hallelujah	Alexandra Burke	2008	1	1,200,000
02	That's My Goal	Shayne Ward	2005	1	1,100,000
03	When We Collide	Matt Cardle	2010	1	1,000,000
04	A Moment Like This	Leona Lewis	2006	1	895,000
05	The Climb	Joe McElderry	2009	1	807,000
06	What Makes You Beautiful	One Direction	2010	3	781,000
07	Beat Again	JLS	2008	2	556,000
08	When You Believe	Leon Jackson	2007	1	506,000
09	Cannonball	Little Mix	2011	1	465,000
10	Please Don't Let Me Go	Olly Murs	2009	2	401,000

The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Albums

	ALBUM TITLE	ARTIST	X FACTOR YEAR	FINAL PLACING	SALES TO DATE
01	Spirit	Leona Lewis	2006	1	3,000,000
02	JLS	JLS	2008	2	1,400,000
03	Overcome	Alexandra Burke	2008	1	816,000
04	Up All Night	One Direction	2010	3	777,000
05	Olly Murs	Olly Murs	2009	2	761,000
06	G4	G4	2004	2	611,000
07	Heaven	Rebecca Ferguson	2010	2	586,000
08	Shayne Ward	Shayne Ward	2005	1	536,000
09	Journey South	Journey South	2005	3	414,000
10	Rhydian	Rhydian	2007	2	406,000