Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud passes one million sales

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran has become one of the UK’s biggest-selling singles of all-time, OfficialCharts.com can reveal.

Ed’s super-romantic love song has passed the one million sales mark (1.01 million according to latest Official Charts Company data), meaning there are now over 160 million-selling singles in British chart history.

It’s Ed’s second seat in the million sellers’ club – his 2011 release The A Team broke the barrier in 2013.

Thinking Out Loud, whose video features Ed dancing a passionate ballroom duet with So You Think You Can Dance star Brittany Cherry, had an incredible journey to Number 1 and its million sales milestone – it is officially the longest climb to the top ever! 

Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud claims longest climb to Number 1 of all time

Originally charting at Number 26 in July 2014 upon the release of Ed’s second album x, Thinking Out Loud took an astonishing 15 weeks of yo-yoing up and down the Top 40 before finally breaking the Top 10 in October. 

It was another three weeks before Thinking Out Loud turfed Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass off the top spot, spending a week there before Cheryl Fernandez-Versini’s I Don’t Care came along and replaced it. 

But it wasn’t all over for Thinking It Loud – Ed sensationally returned to the Number 1 spot a month later, seeing off Take That’s These Days, before fellow million-selling pop juggernaut Uptown Funk from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars began its mammoth stint at the summit.

Ed Sheeran returns to Official Singles Chart Number 1 with Thinking Out Loud

Thinking Out Loud has spent an incredible 43 consecutive weeks in the Top 40, never dropping below Number 29, and 20 of those weeks – over four months – were spent in the Top 10!

And that’s not all – Ed isn’t partying alone today. Thinking Out Loud is joined in the million-sellers’ club today by two other big hits, Hero from Enrique Iglesias and Don’t You Worry Child from Swedish House Mafia FT John Martin.

Enrique Iglesias scored his first UK chart-topper with Hero, spending four weeks at Number 1, and the track becomes the third 2002-released track to pass the magic million. Hero’s sales now stand at 1.006 million – it spent 17 weeks in the Top 40 and was knocked off the summit by Westlife’s World Of Our Own way back in March 2002. Enrique has had seven Top 10s since. 

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The success of Swedish House Mafia’s Don’t You Worry Child was much more recent, topping the Official Singles Chart for one week in October 2012. Despite its relatively short spell at Number 1, the song, which featured John Martin on vocals had real staying power.

It spent 24 consecutive weeks on the Top 40 – that’s just two weeks shy of six months! Don’t You Worry Child even managed to sneak an extra week in the Top 40 almost a year after its first appearance.

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Speaking to OfficialCharts.com, the track’s singer John Martin was thrilled to hear he’d bagged his first million-seller. “That’s fantastic! I couldn’t have imagined it would sell that many. It’s a great sign that so many people have taken that song to their hearts. I feel blessed to be a part of it.”

Ed, Enrique and Swedish House Mafia’s newfound million-selling status means there are now 161 singles that have scored seven-figure sales in the UK.

View the full list of million sellers in the UK