The UK's Official Top 100 biggest albums of the decade 2010 - 2019

The UK's most popular albums of the 2010s, including big releases by Adele, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and Rihanna.

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The Top 100 biggest albums of the 2010s has been unveiled by the Official Charts Comapny, with Adele taking the Top 2 spots with 21 and 25.

The Tottenham-born singer’s second album 21 was a global phenomenon when it was released in January 2011, just ahead of that momentous BRITs performance of Someone Like You. In the UK, 21 debuted at Number 1 and logged a total of 23 weeks at the top of the Official Albums Chart. The collection took six weeks to sell one million copies. View Adele's full Official Chart history.

It's far and away the decade’s best seller, with 5.17 million chart sales - 1.6 million ahead of its closest competitor, herself, with follow-up release 25, on 3.58 million chart sales. The collection, which spent 13 weeks at the summit, is the UK’s fastest-selling album of all time, selling 800,307 copies in its first chart week, smashing a record previously held by Oasis’s Be Here Now.

Despite being released in 2008, Adele’s debut album 19 ranks as the UK’s 13th biggest record of the 2010s.

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran claims spots 3 with x, 4 with Divide and 7 with his debut +. Ed, who has been crowned the UK's Official Number 1 artist of the decade, scored the fastest-selling album by a male soloist of all time with Divide after clearing a staggering 672,000 copies in its opening week. Ed also became the first and only act in chart history to log a whole year in the Top 10 with three different albums.

Canandian crooner Michael Bublé bags a Top 10 entry - 2011's festive-essential Christmas is the fifth biggest album of the decade with 2.95 million chart sales. Bublé’s 2010 album Crazy Love features at Number 12. 

The biggest debut albums of the decade

Sam Smith claims the biggest debut album of the decade with 2014's In The Lonely Hour, placing sixth on 2.59m chart sales, followed by Ed's + at 7 and Emeli Sande’s Our Version of Events at 8 on 2.43m.

The biggest band albums

The biggest album of the decade by a group or band is Take That’s 2010 album Progess at Number 9 on 2.39m chart sales, just ahead of recent runaway success The Greatest Showman, which finishes as the decade’s tenth biggest album on 2.13m. The cast record spent a mammoth 28 weeks at the top across 2018-2019.

More band albums that feature further down include Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More at 16, Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto from 2011 at 17, Florence + The Machine's debut record Lungs at 24, and Arctic Monkeys' AM at 27. 

Greatest hits

16 greatest hits album feature in the Top 100 of the decade rundown, led by Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits at Number 33. Released in 2010, the collection debuted at Number 2 and is regular feature in Top 100 Official Albums Chart. Others include Oasis' Time Flies 1994-2009 (37), Pink's Greatest Hits... So Far (38), ABBA's Gold (46) and Bob Marley's Legend (47). 

The UK's Official Top 100 biggest albums of the decade

POS TITLE ARTIST PEAK YEAR
1 21 ADELE 1 2011
2 25 ADELE 1 2015
3 X ED SHEERAN 1 2014
4 DIVIDE ED SHEERAN 1 2017
5 CHRISTMAS MICHAEL BUBLE 1 2011
6 IN THE LONELY HOUR SAM SMITH 1 2014
7 + ED SHEERAN 1 2011
8 OUR VERSION OF EVENTS EMELI SANDE 1 2012
9 PROGRESS TAKE THAT 1 2010
10 THE GREATEST SHOWMAN MOTION PICTURE CAST RECORDING 1 2018
11 LOUD RIHANNA 1 2010
12 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 1 2009
13 19 ADELE 1 2008
14 DOO-WOPS & HOOLIGANS BRUNO MARS 1 2010
15 THE FAME LADY GAGA 1 2009
16 SIGH NO MORE MUMFORD & SONS 2 2009
17 MYLO XYLOTO COLDPLAY 1 2011
18 WANTED ON VOYAGE GEORGE EZRA 1 2014
19 TEENAGE DREAM KATY PERRY 1 2010
20 THE DEFAMATION OF STRICKLAND BANKS PLAN B 1 2010
21 RIGHT PLACE RIGHT TIME OLLY MURS 1 2012
22 WHO YOU ARE JESSIE J 2 2011
23 PURPOSE JUSTIN BIEBER 2 2015
24 LUNGS FLORENCE & THE MACHINE 1 2009
25 1989 TAYLOR SWIFT 1 2014
26 HALCYON ELLIE GOULDING 1 2012
27 AM ARCTIC MONKEYS 1 2013
28 A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS COLDPLAY 1 2015
29 I CRY WHEN I LAUGH JESS GLYNNE 1 2015
30 HUMAN RAG'N'BONE MAN 1 2017
31 IF I CAN DREAM ELVIS PRESLEY 1 2015
32 BABEL MUMFORD & SONS 1 2012
33 GREATEST HITS BON JOVI 2 2010
34 BORN TO DIE LANA DEL REY 1 2012
35 UP ALL NIGHT ONE DIRECTION 2 2011
36 IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW OLLY MURS 1 2011
37 TIME FLIES - 1994-2009 OASIS 1 2010
38 GREATEST HITS - SO FAR PINK 5 2010
39 GLORY DAYS LITTLE MIX 1 2016
40 SUNNY SIDE UP PAOLO NUTINI 1 2009
41 TAKE ME HOME ONE DIRECTION 1 2012
42 TALK THAT TALK RIHANNA 1 2011
43 RECOVERY EMINEM 1 2010
44 UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX BRUNO MARS 1 2012
45 BORN THIS WAY LADY GAGA 1 2011
46 GOLD - GREATEST HITS ABBA 1 1992
47 LEGEND BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS 1 1984
48 18 MONTHS CALVIN HARRIS 1 2012
49 STAYING AT TAMARA'S GEORGE EZRA 1 2018
50 RUMOURS FLEETWOOD MAC 1 1977
51 CURTAIN CALL - THE HITS EMINEM 1 2005
52 THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION WHITNEY HOUSTON 3 2007
53 GREATEST HITS FOO FIGHTERS 4 2009
54 BACK TO BLACK AMY WINEHOUSE 1 2006
55 BAD BLOOD BASTILLE 1 2013
56 MIDNIGHT MEMORIES ONE DIRECTION 1 2013
57 COME AROUND SUNDOWN KINGS OF LEON 1 2010
58 NUMBER ONES MICHAEL JACKSON 1 2003
59 THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE PINK 2 2012
60 NOTHING BUT THE BEAT DAVID GUETTA 2 2011
61 THE VERY BEST OF FLEETWOOD MAC 6 2002
62 DISC-OVERY TINIE TEMPAH 1 2010
63 THE ELEMENT OF FREEDOM ALICIA KEYS 1 2009
64 LIONESS - HIDDEN TREASURES AMY WINEHOUSE 1 2011
65 NEVER BEEN BETTER OLLY MURS 1 2014
66 ALL OVER THE WORLD - THE VERY BEST OF ELO 1 2005
67 CEREMONIALS FLORENCE & THE MACHINE 1 2011
68 CHAOS AND THE CALM JAMES BAY 1 2015
69 NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING BIRDS NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING 1 2011
70 GET WEIRD LITTLE MIX 2 2015
71 LIGHTS ELLIE GOULDING 1 2010
72 OLLY MURS OLLY MURS 2 2010
73 MY WORLD JUSTIN BIEBER 3 2010
74 TO BE LOVED MICHAEL BUBLE 1 2013
75 SCIENCE & FAITH SCRIPT 1 2010
76 EVERY KINGDOM BEN HOWARD 4 2011
77 JAKE BUGG JAKE BUGG 1 2012
78 A PERFECT CONTRADICTION PALOMA FAITH 2 2014
79 4 BEYONCE 1 2011
80 UNAPOLOGETIC RIHANNA 1 2012
81 THE LADY KILLER CEE LO GREEN 3 2010
82 NO MORE IDOLS CHASE & STATUS 2 2011
83 THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2 EMINEM 1 2013
84 ONLY BY THE NIGHT KINGS OF LEON 1 2008
85 SWINGS BOTH WAYS ROBBIE WILLIAMS 1 2013
86 BEST OF - DECADE IN THE SUN STEREOPHONICS 2 2008
87 IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS - GREATEST ROBBIE WILLIAMS 1 2010
88 FALL TO GRACE PALOMA FAITH 2 2012
89 GREATEST HITS QUEEN 1 1981
90 CAUSTIC LOVE PAOLO NUTINI 1 2014
91 IF YOU WAIT LONDON GRAMMAR 2 2013
92 SINCE I SAW YOU LAST GARY BARLOW 2 2013
93 THE THRILL OF IT ALL SAM SMITH 1 2017
94 GHOST STORIES COLDPLAY 1 2014
95 GREATEST HITS GUNS N' ROSES 1 2004
96 RED TAYLOR SWIFT 1 2012
97 GREATEST HITS WESTLIFE 4 2011
98 OUTTA THIS WORLD JLS 2 2010
99 DIRECT HITS KILLERS 5 2013
100 FOUR ONE DIRECTION 1 2014

©2019Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

Article image: GHNASSIA/NMA2016/SIPA/Shutterstock

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avatar

Dneaeade

0

3 albums each for Ed Sheran, Adele & Olly Murs. They're all talented alright but in a Top 100, really ? isn't it a bit much ?

4 albums for One Direction, some albums of theirs were very successful alright, but all of them ?!

And only 1 Michael Jackson album : a greatests hits and no Madonna at all and no Kylie Minogue, no Britney Spears, yeah right.

avatar

Remko van Knippenberg

1

Where is Kylie Minogues Fever?

NG

Nuno Gouveia

1

This are TOP 100 best selling albums from 2010 to 2019.
Kylie Minogue "Fever" was released on the previous decade and did not sell enough this decade to be TOP 100 of the Decade.

avatar

Piran

5

Adele occupying first & second might be expected, but it's also very much deserved! :)

I also love 'The Greatest Showman' just about squeezing in a Top 10 placing.

avatar

Rob Parkinson

4

No surprise to see Adele and Ed Sheeran leading this chart. Always baffles me how OCC dont make a mention of the 1977 studio album, not even a greatest hits by Fleetwood Mac - Rumours. Surely it deserves some credit that after 33 years of release it can still hold up in the top 50 albums over a decade which will take it 42 years after release at the end of the decade. There are no other albums from the 70s, 80s or 90s (not including greatest hits) that even get in the top 100 and a scarce few from the 00s. Impressive if you ask me.

JC

Jake Cutler

0

To be fair to OCC not many people under the age of 40 probably know who they are, so they're just satisfying the demographic I guess. Shame really 😞