Official Charts marks 10 years of streaming in the UK’s Official Singles Chart

17 July 2024 - Press release

Ed Sheeran crowned king of the streaming era, claiming the biggest single and album of the past 10 years

 

It’s official – this month marks 10 years since streaming was added into the UK’s Official Chart.

In July 2014, compiled by the Official Charts Company, the first Official Singles Chart based on something other than pure sales was published – marking the coming of age of the new and rapidly-evolving era of music consumption that was streaming.

Today, there are more ways than ever for fans to access music, from CD and vinyl, digital downloads and even the return of the cassette, while the addition of streaming has awarded artists the opportunity to release music and have it reach the widest audience possible, and for fans to delve deep with all-you-can-eat access.

Ten years ago, the historic first Number 1 to be crowned based on combined sales and streams was Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea. According to Official Charts Company data, the track racked up 112,900 chart units that week – made up of 105,560 downloads, 200 physical copies and 712,500 streams (lifetime total now 1.33m).

A number of impressive milestones have been reached since, including the first ever song to land in the Top 40 based on streaming alone (Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass), to the most streams of a single ever in a week (Adele’s Easy On Me with 24,000,000) - a full timeline of highlights is available below.

Official Charts kicks off a season of content in association with UK record labels association the BPI, celebrating artist achievements across the last ten years, and the big chart moments that came as a result of The Official Chart’s streaming era.

 

Ed Sheeran crowned king of the Official Chart streaming era as he claims biggest song and album of the last ten years 
Ed Sheeran officially dominates The Official Chart’s streaming era as the singer’s 2017 album Divide and its lead single, Shape of You, are crowned the Number 1 biggest album and song since streams were incorporated into the chart ten years ago.

Divide, the album that famously ‘broke’ the Official Singles Chart upon its release in March 2017 when 16 songs from the album found their way into the Top 20, contributing to a rule change that summer to cap entries at a maximum of three per artist, has racked up 4.26m chart units across both streaming-equivalent and pure sales. Divide is also the most-streamed album of all time in the UK.

The lead single from the album, Shape of You, comes in at the top of the list of biggest songs of the last decade too, with 6.29m chart units made up of 864,000 downloads and 627.27m streams.

The accolades don’t stop there for Ed, either, as he earns the second and third most-streamed songs of all time in the UK (Shape of You (2) and Perfect (3), eight of the Top 40 most-downloaded songs of the last decade, and the biggest week of video streams ever when Bad Habits earned 8.79m in seven days back in July 2021.

 

Biggest hits of the Official Chart streaming era revealed
Revealing the superstars of the Official Chart streaming era, these are the biggest hits that music has had to offer across the past ten years, according to Official Charts Company data.

(Data period - Week 27, 2014 to Week 27, 2024.)

Biggest song of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)
Ed Sheeran – Shape of You: 6,291,000

Biggest album of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)
Ed Sheeran – Divide: 4,263,000

Most streamed song of the Official Chart streaming era (audio and video streams)
Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved: 697,500,000

Most streamed album of the Official Chart streaming era (audio and video streams)
Ed Sheeran – Divide: 1,790,000

Most streamed video of the Official Chart streaming era 
Pinkfong – Baby Shark: 271,968,000

Best-selling song of the Official Chart streaming era (downloads and physical)
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,700,000

Best-selling album of the Official Chart streaming era (downloads and physical sales)
Adele – 25: 3,391,000

Most UK total streams in a week (audio and video streams)
Adele – Easy On Me (Week 42 2022): 24,000,000

Most UK video streams in a week (video streams only)
Ed Sheeran – Bad Habits (Week 26 2021): 8,792,000

Most downloaded single of the Official Chart streaming era
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,698,000

Total UK streams since streaming included in the Official Chart*
Audio streams: 1,081,037,500,000 (Since week 27, 2014)

Video streams: 74,467,900,000 (Since week 27, 2018 when video was incorporated into chart)
(*BPI market analysis of Official Charts Company data)

 

Martin Talbot, Chief Executive, Official Charts comments:
"We are delighted to be celebrating this exciting landmark for the Official Charts, 10 years since the way we measured music fandom changed forever. It feels like only yesterday that streams were ushered into the Official Singles Chart for the first time - and yet we seem to have enjoyed access to every track in music history, instantly, delivered like water through a digital pipe, for a lifetime.

Streaming has ushered in an era of unlimited choice of music, deliverable through the widest range of methods - as physical discs, permanent downloads, audio streams or video plays. The consumer truly is spoilt for choice.

It is also important to celebrate Ed Sheeran too, for delivering both the biggest track (Shape Of You) and biggest album (Divide) of the new era. What a decade it has been for the Suffolk-raised superstar. Congratulations Ed!”

Min-seok Kim, CEO of Baby Shark masterminds The Pinkfong Company told Official Charts: 
"We are thrilled and honored that 'Baby Shark' has become the most streamed video in the UK Official Chart's streaming era. As a firm believer in the power of music, we’re grateful for this incredible milestone and the love from our UK fans for the last 10 years, and will continue to create joyful songs and content that can connect people across cultures and generations."

  

Top 10 biggest singles of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)

Pos	Title	Artist	Year	Peak
1	SHAPE OF YOU	ED SHEERAN	2017	1
2	SOMEONE YOU LOVED	LEWIS CAPALDI	2018	1
3	PERFECT	ED SHEERAN	2017	1
4	MR BRIGHTSIDE	KILLERS	2004	10
5	THINKING OUT LOUD	ED SHEERAN	2014	1
6	BLINDING LIGHTS	WEEKND	2019	1
7	SHOTGUN	GEORGE EZRA	2018	1
8	ONE DANCE	DRAKE FT WIZKID & KYLA	2016	1
9	UPTOWN FUNK	MARK RONSON FT BRUNO MARS	2014	1
10	DESPACITO (REMIX)	LUIS FONSI/DADDY YANKEE/BIEBER	2017	1

Source: Official Charts Company 2024 – based on sales and streams from week 27 2014 to week 27 2024.

 

Top 10 biggest albums of the Official Chart streaming era (sales and streams combined)

Pos	Title	Artist	Year	Peak
1	DIVIDE	ED SHEERAN	2017	1
2	25	ADELE	2015	1
3	X	ED SHEERAN	2014	1
4	THE GREATEST SHOWMAN	MOTION PICTURE CAST RECORDING	2018	1
5	IN THE LONELY HOUR	SAM SMITH	2014	1
6	1989	TAYLOR SWIFT	2014	1
7	DIVINELY UNINSPIRED TO A HELLISH EXTENT	LEWIS CAPALDI	2019	1
8	WANTED ON VOYAGE	GEORGE EZRA	2014	1
9	I CRY WHEN I LAUGH	JESS GLYNNE	2015	1
10	CURTAIN CALL - THE HITS	EMINEM	2005	1

Source: Official Charts Company 2024 – based on sales and streams from week 27 2014 to week 27 2024.

 

Unlikely heroes of the streaming era
As well as the powerhouses that are Sheeran, Capaldi and Adele, the streaming era has brought about some unlikely heroes on The Official Chart too, whose debut hits have enjoyed impressive and unrelenting viral success across the decade. 

Former Australian busker Tones & I claims both the biggest debut single, and top track by a female in the Official Chart streaming era with Dance Monkey. Released in May 2019, the catchy earworm spent 11 weeks at Number 1 and a whole year inside the Top 40. Fittingly, Dance Monkey went on to become the 12th biggest song of the past 10 years too with 4.01m chart units including 500.5m streams.

Following in the footsteps of The Killers’ Mr Brightside, Riptide by Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy may have peaked at a relatively modest Number 10 upon its 2014 release, but like Mr Brightside, has scaled spectacular heights since through playing the long game. Vance Joy’s under-the-radar UK chart debut has continued to find new audiences in the streaming age and is now the 18th biggest song of the decade, racking up 405.7m UK streams.

Similarly, Oxford indie rockers Glass Animals have enjoyed continued virality of their Top 5 lockdown hit Heat Waves (40). Singer Dave Bayley reflects on the incredible streaming success of Heat Waves in the UK: 
“It’s wonderful to hear that Heat Waves is one of the UK’s most-streamed songs of all time. I still have to pinch myself! It’s wild thinking about it. It was the most personal song I’d written up to that point, but that’s also a reason why I thought it might not do very well. I thought ‘is it too personal, too introspective?’ But, actually, it made me realise that honesty and introspection’s an asset. I really wanted it to be a single, it was so important to me, but I don’t think any of us expected it do exactly what it did. Its success gave me the courage to write more honestly going forwards."

The streaming era and its interplay with hit TV shows has also created some surprise viral renaissances. Summer 2022 saw Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill propelled to Number 1, a record-breaking 37 years after its original release thanks to its feature in Netflix's Stranger Things.

In 2024 we’ve witnessed similarly spectacular returns for Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2001 single Murder On The Dancefloor, scoring new personal-best streaming figures courtesy of the song’s placement in Amazon Prime’s Saltburn, and Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten, as we continue to see hit TV moments and the streaming era’s ease of access combine to breathe new life into classic hits.

 

Yearly UK singles consumption in the digital era 2004-2023
When downloads first entered the Official Charts in 2004, the annual UK singles market sat at just over 32m sales (5.8m downloads, 26.5m physical units). In 2005 downloads exploded, leaping to 26m and surpassing physical singles for the first time. As digital downloads transformed singles consumption, 2012 became the biggest year on record for singles sales in the UK with 188.6m singles purchased, 183m of those being downloads. 

With the download age reaching its peak, the British public’s adoption of streaming began to take hold and the number of tracks streamed in a year doubled from 7.5 billion in 2013 to 14.8 billion in 2014 and streams were introduced to the Official Singles Chart in July of that year. By the end of 2014, the singles market (combined sales and equivalent streams) now stood at 303.3 million.

Fast-forward a decade, and streaming has transformed the singles market once again, streams now make up a staggering 98.9% of all UK singles consumption. Streaming has helped power five-fold growth of the UK singles market over the past ten years to 1.62 billion in 2023. The UK generated 190 billion streams of music last year. 

Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI Chief Executive, said: 
“Streaming has transformed how music is discovered and enjoyed by fans and has enabled many more artists to thrive with the support of their labels in building their careers and connecting with audiences at home and around the world. Such has been its remarkable impact, success for artists is now measured in the hundreds of millions and even billions of streams annually – last year alone well over 200 saw their songs streamed over 100m times in the UK.”

 

Appendix

UK singles market – yearly 2014-2023

	Combined yearly UK singles market*
2014	303.3 million
2015	401 million
2016	547 million
2017	755 million
2018	964 million
2019	1.1 billion
2020	1.3 billion
2021	1.35 billion
2022	1.45 billion
2023	1.62 billion

Source: BPI analysis of Official Charts Company data, includes combined physical and digital sales and weighted sales-equivalent audio and video streams

 

Timeline: Key moments of the Official Chart streaming era

June 2004: iTunes Europe launched, marking the beginning of legitimate digital music in the UK – 32m singles sold in 2004.

September 2004: The standalone Official Download Chart arrived, compiled by the Official Charts Company.

April 2005: Downloads began to count toward the UK’s main Official Singles Chart.

April 2006: Gnarls Barkley's Crazy becomes first single to get to Number 1 on downloads alone.

2009: Launch of Spotify UK.

May 2012: Introduction of the UK's first Official Streaming Chart, a standalone chart separate from the main Official Singles Chart.

End of 2012: A new record year for UK singles sales 188.6 million in 2012, Gotye ft Kimbra's Somebody That I Used To Know is the best-selling single of the year. A record 9 singles became million sellers in 2012 - digital downloading was propelling more singles to million seller status than ever before. Just 76 singles crossed the line by 2002, ten years later that number was 126.

Spring 2013: Daft Punk's chart-topping Get Lucky is first song to earn 1 million streams in a week

End of 2013: 7.5 billion UK audio streams in a year in 2013, more than double the previous year.

July 2014: The first Official Singles Chart incorporating streams was published, counting streams and sales over the past 7 days. Ariana Grande's Problem is first UK Number 1 of streaming age. By this point, weekly streaming figures in the UK had grown from 100 million in 2013 to 260 million. 

September 2014: Meghan Trainor's debut single All About That Bass becomes first song to break the Official Chart Top 40 on streams alone, entering at Number 33. One week later, following its ‘official’ release on downloads, it flew to Number 1.

October 2014: Tidal launches in the UK, focusing on high-fidelity audio quality

December 2014: Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk becomes first track to generate 2 million audio streams in a week. Audio streams in a year doubled to 14.8 billion in 2014.

February 2015: Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do sets new streaming record - 2.58m streams in a week.

March 2015: Streams are incorporated into the Official Albums Chart on 23 February after daily UK streams double from 25m in Jan 2014 to 50m in Jan 2015. Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour is the first UK Number 1 album based on both sales and streams when the first chart is published on 1 March.

June 2015: Apple Music launches globally.

July 2015: The Official Chart moves from Sundays to Fridays as part of the Global Release Day initiative to align release dates around the world and reduce piracy in the digital age.

December 2015: The catalogue of the biggest band of all time, The Beatles, lands on streaming services.

June 2016: Drake's One Dance becomes longest-running Number 1 single of the digital age - 15 weeks.

March 2017: Ed Sheeran infamously 'breaks' the Official Singles Chart. The release of Ed's third studio album Divide completely dominates the Official Singles Chart with all 16 of its track charting in the Top 20.

July 2017: The Official Charts Company announced a rule change, artists would now be limited to three tracks that could simultaneously chart in the Official Singles Chart Top 100.

July 2018: Video streams begin counting towards a song’s UK chart position for the first time. The change comes as services such as Apple Music and Spotify add video to their platform and as YouTube launches their first subscription service in the UK – YouTube Music.

The weighting of ad-funded (free) streams was also downgraded compared to premium streams.

2019: UK record labels report highest revenues in 14 years (£1.1bn) driven by streaming revenue growth of 21.8% YOY

March 2020: As Britain enters Covid-19 lockdown, Official Charts reveals the British public's 'Lockdown Listening' habits and a surge in consumption of uplifting classics, “apocalyptic” isolation songs and kids’ favourites, as the UK got to grips with their new normal indoors.

October 2021: Adele breaks Official Chart streaming records as Easy On Me logs 24 million UK streams in its opening week, still the most UK streams in a week ever.

End of 2021: A record 20,000 tracks were streamed 1 million+ times in the UK in 2021, according to BPI analysis of Official Charts data.

Jan 2022: Huge streaming hit We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Disney’s Encanto becomes the first original Disney song to reach Number 1 in the UK, staying there for seven consecutive weeks.

Summer 2022: Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill is virally propelled to Number 1, a record-breaking 37 years after its original release thanks to its feature in Netflix's Stranger Things, and named by Official Charts as the UK's Official Song of the Summer 2022.

November 2022: As the Official Singles Chart turned 70, Official Charts announces Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved overtakes Shape Of You to become the most-streamed song of all time (562m combined streams), a title it still retains today.

Jan 2023: Video streams began counting in the Official Albums Chart.

June 2023: Central Cee & Dave racked up the most streams in a week for a rap single ever (13.4 million streams), while Official Charts launches a new digital platform to enable the public to listen to any chart in history, powered by Apple Music. 

January 2024 - The Saltburn Effect! Sophie Ellis-Bextor's Murder On The Dancefloor earns personal best week of streams and propelled back to Number 2 thanks to featuring in Amazon Prime's Saltburn.

May 2024: The Killers' Mr Brightside overtakes Wonderwall to become the biggest song of all time to never have reached Number 1. Released in 2004, it’s the most-streamed hit of the pre-streaming era and the longest-running hit ever on the Official Chart (417 weeks).