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Ed Sheeran scores fifth Number 1 on Official Albums Chart with Equals: “Thank you for listening”
Equals claims a massive opening week, and there are new entries from Richard Ashcroft, Spice Girls and The War on Drugs.
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Ed Sheeran’s = (Equals) enters straight in at Number 1 with huge opening week numbers on the Official Albums Chart.
The record is Ed’s fifth to top the chart, and opens with 139,000 chart sales, outperforming the rest of this week’s Top 30 combined.
It’s the biggest opening week for an album in the UK this year – and biggest since Ed’s third album Divide, just over four years ago in March 2017.
68% of Equals’ opening week number is physical sales, including 11,600 copies on vinyl (the week’s best-seller on wax), while 18% comes from streaming, and 14% on downloads.
View Ed's Official Charts history in full here.
Celebrating the news, Ed Sheeran told OfficialCharts.com:
“Thank you so much for making Equals the Number 1 album in the UK this week. I don’t know what else to say, you guys are great, thank you so much for all listening to it, I hope you enjoy it. I hope to see you on tour next year.”
Ed Sheeran with his Official Number 1 Album Award for = (Equals) (Credit: OfficialCharts.com)
MORE: All the Official Albums Chart Number 1s
Elsewhere, former Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft is new at Number 2 with retrospective Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1, his sixth UK Top 10 album, and the 25th anniversary re-release of Spice Girls’ iconic debut album Spice sends the record back to Number 5.
US band The War On Drugs are the final new entry in the Top 10 this week, debuting at Number 6 with their fifth album I Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Outside the Top 10, American blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa enters the Official Albums Chart at Number 13 with Time Clocks, as heavy metal band Mastodon’s Hushed and Grim arrives at Number 14.
Now on sale: limited edition Fan Number 1 Awards from The Wanted
Not far behind are Motörhead, with their greatest hits collection Everything Louder Forever entering at Number 18. Another iconic rock group, Pink Floyd, debut at Number 24 with a special remixed re-issue of their thirteenth album A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Tori Amos earns her 14th Top 40 album with Ocean To Ocean, another new entry at Number 25 and finally, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Symphonic Suites debuts at Number 35.
Just outside the Top 40, The The are at 41 with The Comeback Special, while Billy Bragg's latest album The Million Things That Never Happened lands at Number 44. Billy joined us on The Record Club this week to discuss the album and answer fan questions. Catch a clip below or watch back in full here.
See the full Official Albums Chart Top 100
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🧡 oliviasnoodles 🍜
oh my god, what a downgrade from the 200k+ he sold in one day in 2017. and the craziest part of all of this is that abba will be dethroning him next week - have you seen the amount of pre-orders they had?!
grab the popcorn ladies and gentlemen, ed is gonna be furious, you love to see it 😻
J
JK
Hahahaha it's so funny to see Oliver!!! and Dave Jackson dedicating their own whole lives to spill hate against Ed Sheeran, they're so utterly obssesed and at the end of the day Ed is winning, he sells more than the top 30 together, nobody has sold more than him this year or even in the last 4 years since his own album came out, he has two number ones from this album and Oliver and Dave only have hate hahaha poor souls so mediocre hahaha I hope you enjoy your weekend unlike them who are hurting so much hahaha
Piran
‘=‘ was an okay album overall, but I think it’s Ed’s weakest one to date unfortunately! Too many of the tracks on it sound similar to one another. :/
‘Stop The Rain’ & ‘2step’ deserved way better though!