The UK's Top 100 most downloaded tracks of all time revealed!

Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines revealed as the UK’s most downloaded track of all time as BBC Radio 1 countdown the All-time Official Download Chart Top 100.

Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines is today confirmed as the UK’s most downloaded track of all time, according to a new countdown compiled by the Official Charts Company and unveiled by BBC Radio 1.

Blurred Lines (which also features T.I. and Pharrell Williams) has sold 1.54 million copies since it was released in May last year, according to the All-time Official Download Chart Top 100, which was unveiled today (Monday April 21) by BBC Radio 1 across seven hours on air.

Speaking to OfficialCharts.com, Robin Thicke said he was delighted with the success. “I’m so honoured, the success of Blurred Lines is a dream come true.”

In taking the all-time title, Blurred Lines overhauls the previous biggest selling download, Adele’s Someone Like You, which has now sold 1.53 million copies to date. These are now the only two tracks to have sold more than 1.5 million downloads in the UK, with a total of 27 tracks having passed the 1 million mark.

The All-time Official Download Chart Top 5 is completed by 2011’s Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 FT Christina Aguilera, 2011’s Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye FT Kimbra, and I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas which was first released in 2009.

The fastest growing new million-seller is Pharrell Williams’ Happy, which has now surpassed 1.3 million sales– making it the 9th biggest selling download of all time.

Aside from its new all-time record, Blurred Lines is a genuine phenomenon. Released in May last year, it entered the Official Singles Chart at Number 1 in its first week, reached 1 million sales in eight weeks and spent five weeks at the summit in two different spells. Even today, it continues to sell – having racked up 70,000 copies since the start of 2014 alone.

Jameela Jamil, host of BBC Radio 1’s Official Chart said, “I am so thrilled to be part of Radio 1's Official All-Time Download Top 100 chart and acknowledging the future of the music market. Is it ok that I'm glad the 'The Fox' song didn’t make it to Number 1?”

Official Charts Company chief executive Martin Talbot added, “Blurred Lines is surely one of the catchiest pop hits of all time, so its success is no great surprise. But to become one of only two tracks to have been downloaded 1.5m times – and climb to the top of the poll as the biggest download of all time - is an incredible achievement.”

The Official All-time Official Download Chart Top 100 is being unveiled as part of the UK music industry’s Decade Of Digital celebrations. The initiative, supported by labels association the BPI, the Entertainment Retailers’ Association and the Official Charts Company, is designed to celebrate 10 years since legitimate downloading launched in the UK in 2004.

The legitimate digital music market took off 10 years ago this year, with the launch of a number of download stores including iTunes Europe, 7 Digital Music and MyCokeMusic (a service launched as part of Coca Cola’s sponsorship of the Official Singles Chart). The Official Download Chart was subsequently introduced soon after, in September 2004.

Key moments of those 10 years include:

• September 2004 – the UK’s first Official Download Chart is launched, with Westlife’s Flying Without Wings the first Number 1.
• April 2006 – Crazy by Gnarls Barkley becomes the first single to top the Official Singles Chart as a download only release.
• July 2008 – Leona Lewis’s Bleeding Love is the first download to sell more than 500,000 copies.
• June 2010 – I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas becomes the first download to pass the 1 million sales mark.
• April 2014 – Blurred Lines and Someone Like You are confirmed as the first 1.5 million selling downloads.

In that 10 year period, 1.17 billion single track downloads have been bought in the UK and 153 million album downloads – adding up to more than 2.7 billion music tracks, or 108 tracks for every UK household and 513 downloads per minute for those 10 years.

The download explosion turned 2012 and 2013 into the two biggest years for singles sales in the history of the UK market (with sales of 188.6m and 182.2m tracked) respectively. The era has also seen more “super-hits” than ever - in 2004, it had taken 50 years for UK fans to push almost 80 singles to million-seller status; this number has now almost doubled to nearly 150.

The UK's Top 100 most downloaded tracks of all-time are as follows:

The All-time Official Download Chart Top 100

© 2014 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved. Chart compiled from Week 1 2004 to Week 15 2014.