29 ChartFacts of 2014

Want to be top of the class at your local pop quiz? As we wait to find out the biggest sellers of 2014, we take a look at some of the facts and figures you might not know about this year’s Official Charts. Prepare yourself for some extreme chart-geekery.

1. There were 31 Official Albums Chart Number 1s this year - the first was Ellie Goulding’s Halcyon and the last was Ed Sheeran’s X.

2. Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass was the first track to enter the Official Singles Chart Top 40 based on audio streams alone.

3. Kate Bush became the first female in history to score eight albums in the Official Albums Chart Top 40 simultaneously.

4. Band Aid 30’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? was the fastest selling single of 2014, with over 312,000 copies sold in its first week.

5. Ariana Grande’s Problem FT Iggy Azalea was the first track to reign the new look Official Singles Chart which now features audio streaming data from services likeSpotify, Deezer, Napster, O2 Tracks, Xbox Music, Sony's Music Unlimited and rara alongside physical and digital sales data.

6. Reaching the top spot after a mammoth 19 weeks in the Top 40, Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud earned the title of the song with the longest climb from entering the Top 40 to the Number 1 spot in history.

7. At 97, Dame Vera Lynn became the oldest living artist to reach the Top 20 of the UK's Official Albums Chart, with Vera Lynn: National Treasure.

8. As the Official Download Chart celebrated its tenth anniversary in September, Pharrell’s Happy was revealed as the UK’s most downloaded song of all time.

9. Pink Floyd’s The Endless River claimed the highest first week vinyl sales since 1997, shifting over 6,000 copies.

10. Royal Blood scored the fastest-selling rock debut in three years with their self-titled album.

11. Ed Sheeran scored his long-awaited first UK Number 1 with Sing.

12. Both Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass and Clean Bandit’s Rather Be scored the longest run at Number 1 this year, with a tally of four weeks each.

13. Taylor Swift's 1989 was the fastest-selling female album of the year, shifting over 90,000 copies in its first week.

14. Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk FT Bruno Mars broke the all-time UK streaming record, being listened to over 2,490,000 times in a week.

15. Calvin Harris became the first British solo artist to reach one billion streams on Spotify worldwide.

16. There were 38 Official Singles Chart Number 1s this year – the first was Pitbull’s Timber FT Kesha and the last was Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk FT Bruno Mars.

17. The album that spent the most weeks at Number 1 was Ed Sheeran’s X, which spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at the top.

18. British drum and bass duo Sigma were the only act in 2014 to score two consecutive Number 1s that both sold over 100,000 copies in their first week.

19. Clean Bandit’s Rather Be is the only song released in 2014 to have now sold over a million copies in the UK.

20. 12 other tracks joined the million-sellers club this year:

Pharrell Williams’ Happy
Adele’s Rolling In The Deep
Rihanna’s Diamonds
Pitbull’s Give Me Everything FT Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer
Katy Perry’s Firework
Naughty Boy’s La La La FT Sam Smith
UB40’s Red Red Wine
Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’
Take That’s Rule The World
OneRepublic’s Counting Stars
Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan’s Especially For You
Lou Bega’s Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of…)

21. Frozen was the only video release this year to pass the 3 million sales mark - only Avatar and Skyfall have sold more than 3 million copies since the start of 2010.

22. The fastest selling album of the year was Now That’s What I Call Music 89, which sold over 283,000 copies in its first week on sale.

23. The fastest selling artist album of the year was Ed Sheeran’s X, which sold over 182,000 copies in its first week. X also scored the highest one-week sales tally of the year, shifting 214,000 copies just before Christmas.

24. Four records returned to the top of the Official Singles Chart after slipping: Pharrell’s Happy, Mr Probz’s Waves, Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud and Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk FT Bruno Mars.

25. Cheryl scored her fifth UK Number 1 with I Don’t Care, overtaking Geri Halliwell and Rita Ora to become the British female with the most UK Number 1s in history.

26. Clean Bandit’s Rather Be was the most streamed track of the week for 11 weeks in total.

27. Two albums have sold over a million copies in the UK this year; Ed Sheeran's X and Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour.

28. Three albums returned to the Number 1 spot after slipping; Ellie Goulding’s Halcyon, Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour and Ed Sheeran’s X.

29. This year, Vinyl sales passed the one million mark for the first time in 18 years!