The biggest selling vinyl albums of 2011 revealed

Driven by titles from Radiohead, Adele, Beady Eye and Arctic Monkeys, vinyl albums are enjoying a massive surge in popularity in 2011, according to latest Official Charts Company stats.

Sales are set to reach their highest level for at least six years, with the total number of vinyl albums sold in 2011 having already exceeded the total for the whole of 2010.

Vinyl album sales have already passed 240,000 units – compared to the 234,000 units sold in all 52 weeks of 2010. At the same stage in 2010, only 170,000 vinyl albums had been bought in the UK.

This means vinyl album sales are up 40% year-on-year. And if trade continues at the current rate, sales are on course to exceed 300,000 units for the first time since 2005, when sales reached 351,000.

The peak year on record for vinyl albums was 1975, when music fans bought 91.6m units (according to official BPI figures, which only date back to 1973) – well before the CD-driven albums boom of the late ‘80s and ‘90s.

The biggest selling vinyl album of this year is looking likely to be Radiohead’s ‘The King Of Limbs’, which has sold just over 20,000 copies, almost 10 times the number of Adele’s ‘21’. The full Top 10 of the year to date (until October 8) is outlined below.

The Official Vinyl Album Top 10 of 2011 to date is as follows:

01 ‘The King Of Limbs’ - Radiohead
02 ‘21’ - Adele
03 ‘Different Gear Still Speeding’ - Beady Eye
04 ‘Suck It And See’ - Arctic Monkeys
05 ‘Let England Shake’ - PJ Harvey
06 ‘Bon Iver’ - Bon Iver
07 ‘Submarine (Ost)’ - Alex Turner
08 ‘Director's Cut’ - Kate Bush
09 ‘Build A Rocket Boys’ - Elbow
10 ‘Nevermind’ – Nirvana

© 2011 The Official Charts Company.