Beyonce's Official biggest albums in the UK, ranked and revealed for the first time

There are staggeringly few pop artists today who have used the album format as a means of expression, evolution and creative growth quite like Beyoncé Knowles.

From her super-charged debut Dangerously In Love - made with all the fire, passion and hunger of someone who knew that definitive solo superstardom was within their reach - to the highly-personal and political intricacies of 2013's BEYONCÉ and 2016's Lemonade (both forming two sides of a magnum opus duology that represents Beyoncé at her creative peak), Beyoncé has both refined and re-defined her stardom through her records. 

And now with Beyoncé's slick, disco-indebted seventh solo album RENAISSANCE finally out in the world (and heading for dominance on the Official Albums Chart this Friday) it's time for us, thanks to Official Charts Company data, to reveal and rank for the very first time Beyoncé's Official biggest albums in the UK.

From Dangerously In Love to Lemonade, let's get into it...

MORE: Beyoncé's Official Charts history in full

7. B'Day (Deluxe Edition)
Released: 2007
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 8
Total UK chart units: 272,000

Bey's banger-filled sophomore record actually received two distinct and separate released over two years; the 2007 Deluxe edition contained a re-jigged tracklist complete with a host of new tracks - including the Number 1 single Beautiful Liar, a collaboration between none other than Beyoncé, Beyoncé and Shakira, Shakira. 

6. B'Day
Released: 2006
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 3
Total UK chart units: 482,000

With 2003's Dangerously In Love, Beyoncé proved to the world that she could stand on her own and then some. B'Day was a chance for her to celebrate and experiment with her superstardom; jumping from the Southern funk of glorious lead single Deja-Vu with Jay-Z, to the tender balladry of break-up Irreplaceable without missing a step. 

5. Lemonade
Released: 2016
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 515,000

Beyoncé's ultra-personable and self-examinatory magnum opus lightens from the darker electronic production elements of BEYONCÉ, but its gaze is no less intense. Exploring Beyoncé's cycle of healing after a perceived infidelity, it finds her ruminating on her troubles in the contexts of the political and racial climates she was raised in and defined by.

4. BEYONCÉ
Released: 2013
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 736,000

Beyoncé said it best herself; she changed the game with that digital drop. Released without prior announcement or fanfare, BEYONCÉ is a genuinely game-changing record that freed up one of the defining artists of her generation from in-built promotional and release schedules. 

BEYONCÉ is both Queen Bey's most-streamed album in the UK (combined stream units of over 270,000) and her most-downloaded (over 265,000) given that it was available as a digital download only upon release, with a physical and then streaming release trickled out over several years.  

3. 4
Released: 2011
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 862,000

The first album released by Beyoncé in complete emancipation, after relieving her father of his duties as her long-time manager, 4 is the first Beyoncé album where Beyoncé herself had complete control. And it shows.

Her first Number 1 album in eight years, 4 surprisingly only yielded one Top 10 single; the mid-tempo kiss-off Best Thing You Never Had.

2. Dangerously In Love
Released: 2003
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 1
Total UK chart units: 1.3 million

And that's how you kickstart a solo career! Leady by Bey's first UK Number 1 single (Crazy In Love, of course) and an additional two Top 10 hits (Baby Boy with Sean Paul and Naughty Girl), in the near-decade since Dangerously In Love's release, it's rightly become a touchstone for many artists since on how to make a perfect first impression.

1. I Am...Sasha Fierce
Released: 2008
Official Albums Chart peak: Number 2
Total UK chart units: 1.8 million

The phrase 'big pop girl era' is overused today, but make no doubt about it; this was Beyoncé's big pop girl era, and then some. An ambitious double album comprised of a softer first half (I Am...) and then a braggadocios hits collection courtesy of Bey's sassy alter-ego (Sasha Fierce) her third solo record yielded great results.

I Am...Sasha Fierce contains the most Top 10 hits of any Beyoncé album with four in total; If I Were A Boy (1), Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) (7), Halo (4) and Sweet Dreams (5). It's also Bey's biggest physical selling record here, with a mammoth 1.4 million chart units. See what we mean by big pop girl era?

Beyoncé's Official biggest albums in the UK ranked

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RENAISSANCE is out now via Columbia/Parkwood.