The Official Top 40 biggest vinyl albums and singles of 2018

Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino takes the title as the UK’s best-selling album on vinyl in 2018.

The sixth studio album from the Alex Turner-fronted group has shifted 38,000 copies on wax since its release in May. The bulk of those (24,500) were in its first week on sale, making it the fastest-selling vinyl album of the past 25 years, smashing the previous record set by Liam Gallagher’s As You Were by 8,500 copies.

Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is available on black and clear plastic in stores, while a silver variant was released through the band’s website. A special gold edition was also pressed, exclusive to a pop-up store in the band's hometown Sheffield during the week of release.

Always popular on vinyl, Arctic Monkeys appear twice more on the year-end vinyl chart: 2013’s AM is at 18, and their 2006 debut Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not places at 22.

The Greatest Showman’s Motion Picture Cast Recording takes the runner-up slot, boasting sales of 32,300, while Fleetwood Mac’s iconic Rumours album finishes as 2018's third best-selling vinyl album, with 32,000 sold (Read our 40th anniversary review of the album here). 

Spurred on by the success of the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen's 1981 Greatest Hits finishes fourth with 31,500 copies sold, while their 1991 Greatest Hits II features at 26). Pink Floyd’s classic album The Dark Side Of The Moon still proves popular 45 years after its release at Number 5 (26,000 sales on vinyl in 2018), and George Ezra’s UK Number 1 album Staying At Tamara’s is sixth with sales of 24,000.

More music from the movies appears in the YTD vinyl Top 40: Jeff Wayne’s music from The War of the Worlds is at Number 11 after it was reissued, volumes 1 and 2 of Guardians of the Galaxy rank at 12 and 15, and the cast recording of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again places at 29 

Further down, The 1975's chart-topping album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships released in November is at 20 and Kylie Minogue’s Golden - her first Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in eight years - is at 31. The album's lead single, Dancing, is the bestselling vinyl single by female artist, placing 20th on the Top 40. 

Elsewhere on the bestselling vinyl singles of 2018, Noel Gallagher dominates with three entries in the Top 5: It's A Beautiful World at 1, She Taught Me How To Fly at 4 and If Love Is The Law at 5. All three tracks are taken from their third album Who Built The Moon?. 

The Official Vinyl Albums an Vinyl Singles Charts are posted here every week on OfficialCharts.com.

The Official Top 40 bestselling vinyl albums of 2018 so far

©2018 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

The Official Top 40 bestselling vinyl singles of 2018

©2018 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.