TheOfficial Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised nationalrecord chart foralbums. Entries are ranked by sales andaudio streaming.[1] It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by theOfficial Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast onBBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or onUKChartsPlus as a Top 200,[2] with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case ofThe Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed, this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such asThe Virgin Book of British Hit Albums only including this data. As of 2021,[3] Since 1983, the OCC generally provides a public charts for hits and weeks up to the Top 100. Business customers can require additional chart placings.[4]
To qualify for the Official Albums Chart, the album must be the correct length and price. It must be more than three tracks or 20 minutes long and not be classed as a budget album. A budget album costs between £0.50 and £3.75. Full details of the rules can be found on the OCC website.[5]
According to the canon of the OCC, the official British albums chart was theRecord Mirror chart from 22 July 1956 to 1 November 1958; theMelody Maker chart from 8 November 1958 to March 1960;[6]theRecord Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official Albums Chart from 1969 on. For eight weeks in February and March 1971 no Official Albums Chart was compiled due to apostal strike – for this period, the OCC uses the chart compiled byMelody Maker instead.[7]
In the 1970s the new album chart was revealed at 12:45 pm on Thursdays onBBC Radio 1, and then moved[when?] to 6:05 pm (later 6:30 pm) on Wednesday evenings during thePeter Powell andBruno Brookes shows.[citation needed] In October 1987 it moved to Monday lunchtimes, during theGary Davies show, and from April to October 1993 it briefly had its show from 7:00–8:00 pm on Sunday evenings, introduced byLynn Parsons. Since October 1993 it has been included inThe Official Chart show from 4:00–5:45 pm on Fridays (previously from 4:00–7:00 pm on Sundays). A weekly 'Album Chart' show was licensed out toBBC Radio 2 and presented bySimon Mayo, until it ended on 2 April 2007.
Though album sales tend to produce more revenue and, over time, act as a greater measure of an artist's success, this chart receives less media attention than theUK Singles Chart, because overall sales of an album are more important than its peak position. 2005 saw a record number of artist album sales with 126.2 million sold in the UK.[8]
In February 2015, it was announced that due to the falling sales of albums and rise in popularity of audio streaming, the Official Albums Chart would begin including streaming data from March 2015.[1] Under the revised methodology, the Official Charts Company takes the 12 most streamed tracks from one album, with the top-two songs being down-weighted in line with the average of the rest. The total of these streams is divided by 1000 and added to the pure sales of the album. This calculation was designed to ensure that the chart rundown continues to reflect the popularity of the albums themselves, rather than just the performance of one or two smash hit singles. The final number one album on the UK Albums Chart to be based purely on sales alone wasSmoke + Mirrors byImagine Dragons. On 1 March 2015,In the Lonely Hour bySam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official Albums Chart.[9]
The weekly Top 75 UK Albums Chart (albums described as hits in the case ofBritish Hit Singles & Albums or The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums) were published inMusic Week magazine until 2021. In 2018Future (publisher of 'Louder Sound' publications such asMetal Hammer andClassic Rock)[10][11][12][13] acquiredMusic Week publisher NewBay Media. Future decided that the publication would go monthly from March 2021, and so a bespoke monthly Official Albums Chart Top 75 (similar to album charts used byTop of the Pops[14] in the early 1990s[14] andAbsolute 80s on Sundays)[15][16] started to be published from this date alongsidemonthly singles charts and specialist/genre charts.
By 2022, the weekly album chart had started to regularly feature a pattern of acts getting a Top 10 new entry one week, followed by a dramatic decline the next, with most of these releases exiting the Top 75 completely. The majority of these acts would be indie and rock bands likethe Wombats,Sea Power andMaxïmo Park, who would market their album to the type of people who would want to own the release via a physical format rather than streaming it.
The first number one on the UK Albums Chart wasSongs for Swingin' Lovers! byFrank Sinatra for the week ending 22 July 1956. As of the week ending 8 May 2025, the UK Albums Chart has had 1396 different number one albums. The current number one album isMake 'Em Laugh, Make 'Em Cry, Make 'Em Wait byStereophonics.[17]
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The most successful artists in the charts depend on the criteria used. As of February 2016,Queen albums have spent more time on the British album charts than any other musical act,[18] followed bythe Beatles,Elvis Presley,U2 andABBA. By most weeks at number one, the Beatles lead with a total of 176 weeks, and the most number one albums of all with 16.[19] Robbie Williams is the solo artist with the most number one albums with 15 as of January 2025, when his soundtrack album toBetter Man was released, despite the film itself being a notorious box office flop. Equally notable is the fact the album spent only a single week at number one before dropping out of the Top 100 altogether the following week. In third place areThe Rolling Stones, with 14 number ones. Regarding the tally of number ones for some artists, the Official Charts Company has classed re-issues of The Beatles'Abbey Road, and The Rolling Stones'Exile on Main Street andGoats Head Soup, as brand new hits/number ones due to the amount of bonus material available, formats released and the fact that the issuing record label had changed.[20]
As of September 2022, Elvis Presley is still the male solo artist with the most weeks at number one with a total of 66 weeks and most top ten albums by any artist, charting 53 releases.[21] Until this same month, he also held the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist in a tie withRobbie Williams, however when Williams'XXV[22] album reached the top on 16 September 2022, the former Take That star broke this record with 14 number ones albums compared to Presley's 13 chart toppers, with Williams moving into second place in the all-time number 1 album record holders. As of January 2025, he is just one album behind The Beatles.
Taylor Swift has the most number one albums by a female artist in the UK, with 13 as of February 2025.[23] Swift also holds the record for the most consecutive number one albums by a female artist with 9, just one behindEminem who holds the record for the most consecutive number one albums in Official Albums Chart history with 10.[24]Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks (23 of which were forher second album which is also the most weeks at number one for an album by a female artist).[25]Spice Girls are the female group with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 18 weeks (15 of which were for their debut albumSpice).[26]
In July 2021, ABBA'sGold: Greatest Hits was officially recognised by the Official Charts Company as the first album to spend over 1000 weeks on the Albums Chart,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] but this total does not include 2014'sGold – 40th Anniversary Edition (which like Queen'sThe Platinum Collection is a 3-CD set also includingMore ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits andThe Golden B-sides) or additional weeks inside the Top 100 missing from the OCC's database before February 1994 (as with the singles chart, Music Week only published the Top 75 as this was the public chart for store owners to use in their record shops with the Top 150 Artist Albums Chart[39] being for industry insiders/ChartsPlus subscribers).
For many years, The Beatles'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the best-selling album in UK chart history, but is now in third place after being supplanted by Queen'sGreatest Hits and then also by ABBA'sGold: Greatest Hits. However,Sgt. Pepper still remains the best-sellingstudio album in UK chart history. Queen'sGreatest Hits has sold over 7 million copies (including downloads and equivalent streams) as of July 2022. ABBA'sGold has sold over 6 million, andSgt. Pepper has sold in excess of 5.4 million copies.[40] The longest-running number one album, both consecutively and non-consecutively, is thesoundtrack of the filmSouth Pacific. It had a consecutive run of 70 weeks from November 1958 to March 1960, and had further runs at the top in 1960 and 1961, making a non-consecutive total of 115 weeks.
The youngest artist to top the chart isNeil Reid, whosedebut album topped the chart in 1972 when he was only 12 years old,[41] while the youngest female artist is Billie Eilish who was 17 years old when she debuted at the top withWhen We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?.[42] The record for the oldest artist to top the charts isVera Lynn, who was 92 years old when she was at number one withWe'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn, released in 2009 (though the album only contains material she recorded between 1936 and 1959). Lynn, who died in 2020 at the age of 103,[43][44] also leads the list for the oldest artist to have a chart album, when the 2017 release ofVera Lynn 100, released to mark her 100th birthday (though again, this only contains material she recorded decades earlier), peaked at number 3. Currently, the oldest living male artist to have the topped the UK albums chart isTom Jones,[45] who reached the top in 2021 with new studio albumSurrounded By Time at the age of 80,[46][47][48][49] while 95 year old Tony Bennett charted at number 6 on the chart of 8–14 October 2021 with his Lady Gaga duets albumLove For Sale, becoming recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to release an album of new material.[50][51]
In 1980,Kate Bush became the first British female solo artist to have a number-one album in the UK withNever for Ever, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at number 1. In August 2014, she became the first female artist to have eight albums in the Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart simultaneously, (altogether she had eleven albums in the Top 50 in one week).[52] She is currently in fourth place for artists having the most simultaneous UK Top 40 albums, behind Elvis Presley andDavid Bowie who both tie for the most simultaneous Top 40 albums (twelve each, both immediately following their deaths in 1977 and 2016 respectively),[53] and The Beatles who had eleven in 2009 when remastered versions of their albums were released.
The fastest selling album (first chart week sales) is25 byAdele. Released in November 2015, it sold over 800,000 copies in its first week.[54] However, the albumBe Here Now byOasis is a controversial second place, this is due to the fact its release date was irregular, being released on a Thursday instead of the usual Monday. The record was released on 21 August 1997 and sold around 813,000 in its first seven days, which surpasses the current claimant to the title, though this topic is still highly contested.[55]
In September 2020,The Rolling Stones became the first act to have reached number one in the album chart during six different decades (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2010s and 2020s). For solo artists, Elvis Presley was the first artist to score UK number-one albums in five different decades (the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 2000s and 2010s). In 2020,Bruce Springsteen became the first solo artist to score UK number-one albums in fiveconsecutive decades (the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s) with his twelfth number-one albumLetter to You. Just two weeks later,Kylie Minogue became the first female solo artist to have UK number-one albums in five different decades (all consecutively, the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s), with her eighth UK number-one albumDisco. In November 2021, ABBA became the third group (after The Rolling Stones and The Beatles) to score a UK number one album in five different decades (in ABBA's case, the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2020s) with the band's tenth number one album,Voyage. With that album, ABBA also became the artist with the longest gap between number one studio albums, with 40 years (sinceThe Visitors in 1981).
The longest number one by a group isSimon and Garfunkel'sBridge Over Troubled Water which was number one for 33 weeks (13 of which were consecutive). The longest consecutive number one by a group was the Beatles'Please Please Me, which held the top spot for a straight 30 weeks. The longest number one by a male solo artist was Elvis Presley withG.I. Blues which stayed at the top for 22 weeks (hisBlue Hawaii album was also the longest consecutive number one album for a male artist with 17 weeks).Adele's album21 has the most weeks at number one by a female solo artist (and by a solo artist of any gender) with 23 weeks, 11 of which were consecutive (which is also a record for a female artist).
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the year-end chart wasWith the Beatles by The Beatles in 1963 – they became the first group to achieve this feat.Elton John'sDon't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player in 1973, marks the first album by a male artist and solo act to do so. The first female solo artist to have the UK's year-end best seller wasBarbra Streisand in 1982, withLove Songs.
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the decade-end chart wasSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in the 1960s – they became the first group to achieve this.James Blunt'sBack to Bedlam, in the 2000s, marks the first album by a male artist and solo act to do it. Blunt was the only performer in history to top the decade chart with a debut album. The first female solo artist to achieve this feat was Adele in the 2010s, with21.
Dua Lipa'sFuture Nostalgia holds the record for having the lowest one-week sales while at the top of the chart in the modern era,[clarification needed] when it was number one the week beginning 15 May 2020 with sales of only 7,317, while in 2021 You Me At Six (Suckapunch)[56] and Ben Howard (Collections from the Whiteout)[57] became the first artists to have a number one album exit the Top 100 with only one week on the chart (though whenThe Guinness Book of British Hit Albums did their list of number one albums with the fewest weeks on the chart, it was based on the Top 75 countdown and featured acts such asLittle Angels with their 1993 albumJam).[58] In 2023,The Lottery Winners made the record for the steepest drop from number one when their albumAnxiety Replacement Therapy fell out of the Top 200 altogether with second week sales of 880 copies.[59] This occurrence of number one albums dropping out of the top 100 in their second week of release prompted an article inThe Guardian newspaper wondering whether the UK album chart was broken.[60][61]
On 26 August 2022,Aitch became the first artist to chart with an album released in aNFT format whenClose to Home debuted at number 2[62][63] (withSteps beating the rapper to number one and becoming the first mixed-gender British act to get chart topping albums in four consecutive decades).[64] A week later,Will of the People[65] byMuse became the first NFT-listed album to top the charts, with the limited edition NFT listed as part of the 3,889 downloaded copies it sold out of 51,510 sales.[66][67]
Also on 16 September 2022, Columbia became the first record label to take the Top 3 chart positions with three different acts with releases by Robbie Williams, Ozzy Osbourne and Harry Styles occupying number 1, 2 and 3 (with parent company Sony Music also having the number 4 with a re-issue of Manic Street Preachers'Know Your Enemy). In the previous 66 years of the chart, this occurrence where one label has had the Top 3 has only happened twice before with Parlophone taking the Top 3 positions in 1964 with two albums by The Beatles andStay With The Hollies and K-Tel having three TV-advertised compilations at number 1, 2 and 3 on the chart of 31 December 1972.[68]
The fastest-selling debut albums (first-week sales):
Sam Smith holds the record for most weeks spent in the Top 10 by a debut album withIn the Lonely Hour, with 76, surpassing a record previously held byEmeli Sandé.[71]
Over more than sixty years of compiling album sales, the various chart compiling firms have had a problem with the success of multi-artist compilation albums, with these albums (mostly TV-advertised collections featuring a number of hits) either being allowed to chart in the main album chart or excluded.
In August 1971, the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB)[72] allowed low-priced budget albums to chart as well as standard compilations.[73] This decision gave a number one toMusic For Pleasure'sHot Hits 6, which went straight in at the top of the chart and was joined at number 6 by a new entry forHallmark'sTop of the Pops Volume 18, another album featuring a selection of popular tracks performed by session artists in the style of a recent hit (and unconnected with the BBC series ofTop of the Pops albums, which would follow in the 1990s).
This decision was soon overturned, with these anonymous cover albums being taken out the chart again. On the Official Albums Chart Top 50 for the week ending 18 August 1973, all the compilations listed as 'various artists' albums were taken out of the chart, but those billed as 'official soundtracks' (to films such asA Clockwork Orange andCabaret) were kept in.[74] As the Ronco-released tie-in to the 1973 filmThat'll Be the Day was listed as a various artist album and not as a soundtrack, it disappeared from the chart after its seventh week at number one[75][76][77][78][79][80][81] alongside EMI's former number onePure Gold[82] and Phillip's20 Original Chart Hits.
In 1983, theNow That's What I Call Music series was launched[83] by EMI/Virgin, followed by CBS/WEA's rivalHits Album series a year later and Chrysalis/MCA'sOut Now! in 1985.[84][85] From this point in the 1980s, every regular edition ofNow That's What I Call Music topped the albums chart (apart fromNow 4[86] which was kept of the number one spot by the first everHits Album), with these albums from the three major-label joint-ventures joined in the charts by many albums from all the regular compilation specialists like K-Tel, Telstar and Stylus.[87] As the amount of compilations in the chart were keeping out artists from reaching number one or charting at all, it was decided that all the various artist albums would be removed from the Official Albums Chart Top 100.
In January 1989, all the various artistcompilation albums were removed from the Top 100 albums chart and given their own Top 20 chart (found inMusic Week andRecord Mirror), with the main albums chart reformatted as a top 75 (as far as hit albums are concerned) to equal the singles chart.
As of 2022,[88] the OCC publishes the Official Compilations Chart Top 100 on their website,[89] which as well as listing the chart places of all the variousNow That's What I Call Music!,Hits Albums andMinistry of SoundAnnuals that have been released, now include Motion Picture Cast Recordings such asThe Greatest Showman orA Star Is Born and Original Broadway/West End cast albums such asHamilton, all three of which were included in the main artist albums chart before 2020.[90][91] In addition to the main Compilations chart, all the 'Motion Picture Cast Recordings' and cast albums get their own Official Soundtrack Albums Chart Top 50,[92] but are still classed as artist albums as far as the singles chart is concerned with, for example, only three tracks from early 2022 chart topperEncanto (a Disney soundtrack which sold 13,855 units to be at number one for the chart of 3 February 2022) being allowed to chart as singles at a time.[93][94][95]
| Position | Artist | Album | Year | Weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Original Soundtrack | South Pacific (soundtrack) | 1958 | 115 weeks |
| 2 | Original Soundtrack | The Sound of Music (soundtrack) | 1965 | 70 weeks |
| 3 | Original Soundtrack | The King And I (soundtrack) | 1956 | 48 weeks |
| 4 | Simon and Garfunkel | Bridge Over Troubled Water | 1970 | 33 weeks |
| 5 | The Beatles | Please Please Me | 1963 | 30 weeks |
| 6 | Motion Picture Cast Recording | The Greatest Showman (soundtrack)[nb 1] | 2017 | 28 weeks |
| The Beatles | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | 1967 | ||
| 7 | Adele | 21 | 2011 | 23 weeks |
| 8 | Elvis Presley | G.I. Blues (soundtrack) | 1960 | 22 weeks |
| 9 | The Beatles | With The Beatles | 1963 | 21 weeks |
| A Hard Day's Night | 1964 | |||
| 10 | Ed Sheeran | Divide | 2017 | 20 weeks |
| 11 | Original Cast Recording | My Fair Lady | 1956 | 19 weeks |
| 12 | Original Soundtrack | Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack) | 1977 | 18 weeks |
| Elvis Presley | Blue Hawaii (original soundtrack)[100] | 1961 | ||
| The Beatles | Abbey Road | 1969 | ||
| 13 | The Carpenters | The Singles: 1969–1973 | 1973 | 17 weeks |
| 15 | Spice Girls | Spice | 1996 | 15 weeks |
| Phil Collins | ...But Seriously | 1989 | ||
| 16 | Dire Straits | Brothers in Arms | 1985 | 14 weeks |
1989 "the Official Albums Chart is split in two: a Top 150 Artist Albums Chart and a Top 50 Multi-Artist Compilations Chart. In time, the two charts become widely referred to (including within the OfficialCharts.com database) as the "Official Albums Chart" and "Official Compilations Chart. Format shifts continue through the year – sales of CDs overtake vinyl albums for the first time, as BPI data registers a then albums market peak of 163 million units across the year".
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