Sheeran Shapes Charts

The Official Charts Company (OCC) has revealed its mid-year list of the biggest selling singles and albums of the year so far. Little known singer Ed Sheeran fares surprisingly well, occupying three of the top five positions in the biggest selling singles list alongside the top spot for albums with ÷.

Other artists who get a vague look in include Rag n Bone Man, Drake, Little Mix and Stormzy, whose debut album ‘Gang Signs and Prayer’ is at number eight.  Sheeran’s second album ‘X’ is also at number five, with Rag’N’Bone Man, Drake and the ubiquitous Now That’s What I Call Music comp making up the top five. One suspects that much like a cockroach, the Now.. series would survive any chart equivalent of a nuclear meltdown.

The OCC figures are based on combined streams, downloads and physical sales, with Sheeran track ‘Shape of you’ at number one in the singles. The song has also overtaken Drake’s ‘One Dance’ as the UK’s most streamed song of all time, with 184,000,000 streams, 717,000 times and has a combined sales figure of 2.6m since its release in January.

You can see the complete top 40 for both albums and singles so far this year here.