The Biggest UK Hits of the Streaming Era

The superstars of the Official UK Chart streaming era, these are the biggest hits from 2014 to 2024 that music has had to offer according to Official Charts Company data.

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

“Shape of You” peaked at number one on the singles charts of 34 countries, including the US Billboard Hot 100 — later becoming the best-performing song of 2017. On 10 December 2018, the song became the first song to hit 2 billion streams on Spotify and is currently the 2nd most streamed song on the platform with 3.6 billion streams, behind “Blinding Lights” by the Weeknd. Ed Sheeran won the Grammy Award Best Pop Solo Performance for “Shape of You” at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards

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

The album was number one in the United Kingdom, selling 672,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling album by a male solo artist there and the highest opening behind Adele’s 25 and Oasis‘ Be Here Now. To promote the album, Sheeran embarked on a worldwide tour, entitled the ÷ Tour. Comprising 260 shows, by August 2019, it had become the biggest, most attended, and highest-grossing tour of all time.

Most streamed song (audio and video streams)
Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved: 697,500,000

The song became Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi’s first No. 1 single, spending seven consecutive weeks atop the UK chart and was the best-selling single of 2019 in the UK. When CapaldI was 18, his manager Ryan Walter discovered him through an iPhone recording that was recorded in his bedroom and had uploaded to his SoundCloud account. The day after first contacting Capaldi, Walter flew from America to Britain to hear Capaldi play live.

Most streamed album (audio and video streams)
Ed Sheeran – Divide: 1,790,000

Worldwide, on the day of its release, the tracks of the album achieved a total of 56.73 million streams on Spotify in a single day, breaking the previous record of 29 million for Starboy by the Weeknd in November 2016. All the tracks on the album reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart in the week of the album’s release. The dominance of its tracks on the UK chart led to calls for change on how the single chart is compiled, and the Official Charts Company then introduced new rules limiting tracks eligible for entry in the top 100 to three per the main artist.

Most streamed video
Pinkfong – Baby Shark: 271,968,000

“Baby Shark” is a children’s song associated with a dance involving hand movements dating back to the late 20th century. In 2016, “Baby Shark” became very popular when Pinkfong, a South Korean entertainment company, released a version of the song on June 17, 2016, with a YouTube music video which went viral in social media, online video, and radio. In January 2022, it became the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views.

Best-selling song (downloads and physical)
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,700,000

“Uptown Funk” by British record producer Mark Ronson and featuring American singer Bruno Mars was released as the lead single from Ronson’s fourth studio album, Uptown Special (2015). Copyright controversies arose after the song’s release resulting in multiple lawsuits and amendments to its songwriting credits. In 2015, similarities with “Oops Up Side Your Head” (1979) by the Gap Band led them, along with keyboardist Rudolph Taylor, and producer Lonnie Simmons to be added as co-writers of “Uptown Funk” receiving 17% of the publishing royalties. The song topped the charts of 19 countries. In the United States, “Uptown Funk” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 consecutive weeks and spent seven weeks on the top of the UK Singles Chart.

Best-selling album (downloads and physical sales)
Adele – 25: 3,391,000

The third studio album by the English singer-songwriter Adele. In the United States, 25 sold 2.3 million after three days of availability, becoming the fastest-selling album of the 21st century and the best-selling album of 2015. The album reached sales of 2.433 million early on its fourth day, surpassing the single-week record for an album set by NSYNC‘s No Strings Attached. It became the third best-selling digital album of all time behind Adele’s own 21 and Taylor Swift‘s 1989. 25 was also the second biggest-selling album of a calendar year by a female artist only trailing behind Britney Spears‘ Oops!… I Did It Again.

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

Adele wrote the song with producer, Greg Kurstin. Kurstin collaborated with Adele on the albums 25 and 30. He also co-wrote, produced and played most of the instruments on Adele’s record-breaking 2015 single “Hello”. Among others, he has worked with Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, Pink, Harry Styles, and Foo Fighters. He has also won nine Grammy Awards.

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

The lead single from his fourth studio album peaked at number one in 28 countries. When Rolling Stone asked Sheeran about his own “addiction issues”, he pointed out that he decided to get his drinking issues under control when his wife Cherry was pregnant with their first daughter, and she expressed her concern that he might be too intoxicated to safely drive her to the hospital when it was time to give birth.

Most downloaded single
Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk: 1,698,000

In 2016, “Uptown Funk” received Grammy awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. It also won International Work of the Year at the APRA Music Awards, Best Collaboration at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, and was also nominated for Top Radio Song and Top Streaming Song (Video) at the Billboard Music Awards. “Uptown Funk ” was inducted to the 2017 edition of the Guinness World Records for achieving the most weeks at number one on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart.

Total UK streams since streaming included in the Official Chart*
Audio streams: 1,081,037,500,000 (Since 2014)
Video streams: 74,467,900,000 (Since 2018 when video was incorporated into chart)