Ed Sheeran’s Play (Atlantic) has earned the UK singer-songwriter his ninth No.1 album.
Play is also his ninth consecutive chart-topper – Sheeran has reached the summit with all his studio albums and the +-=÷X (Tour Collection). And it is his second chart-topper of the year following +-=÷X (Tour Collection), which remains in the Top 10.
The opening total of 67,654 (34,988 CDs, 8,710 vinyl albums, 5,668 cassettes, 8,872 digital downloads and 9,416 sales-equivalent streams) is well ahead of his previous album, the low-key Autumn Variations from 2023 (30,016). Play has the third highest weekly total of the year, behind Sam Fender’s People Watching (107,124 units) and Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend (85,305 units).
The result for Play is not far off his other 2023 album, (Substract), which opened with consumption of 76,263, although it’s down on the 139,107 that = (Equals) secured on debut in 2021. It’s worth noting, though, that there was no tour bundling pre-order mechanic to boost the UK week one result for Play as part of Atlantic’s campaign.
Sheeran headed up a Top 5 of big new releases, including Jade’s That’s Showbiz Baby! at No.3 (23,262 units), which is the biggest opening for a debut album so far in 2025, Twenty One Pilots’ Breach at No.4 (21,612 units) and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Perimenopop (9,505).
Sheeran has now spent 51 weeks at the albums summit – only The Beatles (176 weeks), Elvis Presley (66 weeks) and ABBA (58 weeks) have spent longer at the top. Sheeran is the first British solo artist to spend 50 weeks at No.1.
He has now matched Bob Dylan, Take That and Stereophonics on the list of artists with the most UK No.1 albums ever.
Sheeran also scored the highest new entry on the singles chart with Camera at No.16. Meanwhile, Sapphire has climbed 10 places (No.28) and A Little More soared 16 places to No.32.
PHOTO: Harry Hall
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