Ed Sheeran leads biggest releases of the past decade as we celebrate 10 years of streaming in the Official Chart

Plus, we reveal the biggest hits of the Official Chart streaming era

It’s official – this month marks 10 years since streaming was added into the UK’s Official Chart.

In July 2014, compiled by the Official Charts Company, the first Official Singles Chart based on something other than pure sales was published – marking the coming of age of the new and rapidly-evolving era of music consumption that was streaming.

Today, there are more ways than ever for fans to access music, from CD and vinyl, digital downloads and even the return of the cassette, while the addition of streaming has awarded artists the opportunity to release music and have it reach the widest audience possible, and for fans to delve deep with all-you-can-eat access.

Ten years ago, the historic first Number 1 to be crowned based on combined sales and streams was Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea. According to Official Charts Company data, the track racked up 112,900 chart units that week – made up of 105,560 downloads, 200 physical copies and 712,500 streams (lifetime total now 1.33m).

A number of impressive milestones have been reached since, including the first-ever song to land in the Top 40 based on streaming alone (Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass), to the most streams of a single ever in a week (Adele’s Easy On Me with 24,000,000).

Official Charts kicks off a season of content in association with UK record labels association the BPI, celebrating artist achievements across the last 10 years, and the big chart moments that came as a result of The Official Chart’s streaming era.

Ed Sheeran claims biggest song and album of Official Charts streaming era

Ed Sheeran officially dominates The Official Chart’s streaming era as the singer’s 2017 album Divide and its lead single, Shape of You, are crowned the Number 1 biggest album and song since streams were incorporated into the chart ten years ago.

Divide, the album that famously ‘broke’ the Official Singles Chart upon its release in March 2017 when 16 songs from the album found their way into the Top 20, contributing to a rule change that summer to cap entries at a maximum of three per artist, has racked up 4.26m chart units across both streaming-equivalent and pure sales. Divide is also the most-streamed album of all time in the UK.

The lead single from the album, Shape of You, comes in at the top of the list of biggest songs of the last decade too, with 6.29m chart units made up of 864,000 downloads and 627.27m streams.

The accolades don’t stop there for Ed, either, as he earns the second and third most-streamed songs of all time in the UK (Shape of You (2) and Perfect (3), eight of the Top 40 most-downloaded songs of the last decade, and the biggest week of video streams ever when Bad Habits earned 8.79m in seven days back in July 2021.

The biggest hits of the Official Chart streaming era

Revealing the superstars of the Official Chart streaming era, these are the biggest hits that music has had to offer across the past ten years, according to Official Charts Company data.

(Data period - Week 27, 2014 to Week 27, 2024.)

Biggest song of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)
Ed Sheeran – Shape of You: 6,291,000

Biggest album of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)
Ed Sheeran – Divide: 4,263,000

Most streamed song (audio and video streams)
Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved: 697,500,000

Most streamed album (audio and video streams)
Ed Sheeran – Divide: 1,790,000

Most streamed video
Pinkfong – Baby Shark: 271,968,000

Best-selling song (downloads and physical)
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,700,000

Best-selling album (downloads and physical sales)
Adele – 25: 3,391,000

Most UK total streams in a week (audio and video streams)
Adele – Easy On Me (Week 42 2022): 24,000,000

Most UK video streams in a week (video streams only)
Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits (Week 26 2021): 8,792,000

Most downloaded single
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,698,000

Total UK streams since streaming included in the Official Chart*
Audio streams: 1,081,037,500,000 (Since week 27, 2014)
Video streams: 74,467,900,000 (Since week 27, 2018 when video was incorporated into chart)
(*BPI market analysis of Official Charts Company data)

Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts comments, "we are delighted to be celebrating this exciting landmark for the Official Charts, 10 years since the way we measured music fandom changed forever.

"It feels like only yesterday that streams were ushered into the Official Singles Chart for the first time - and yet we seem to have enjoyed access to every track in music history, instantly, delivered like water through a digital pipe, for a lifetime.

"Streaming has ushered in an era of unlimited choice of music, deliverable through the widest range of methods - as physical discs, permanent downloads, audio streams or video plays. The consumer truly is spoilt for choice.

"It is also important to celebrate Ed Sheeran too, for delivering both the biggest track (Shape Of You) and biggest album (Divide) of the new era. What a decade it has been for the Suffolk-raised superstar. Congratulations Ed!"