Official Record Store Chart 2023: the biggest albums in the UK's independent record shops

Lewis Capaldi’s Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent was officially the most-purchased album in the UK’s independent record shops in 2023, Official Charts can confirm.

Lewis’s second studio LP, which debuted at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in June, tops the year-end Official Record Store Chart, which tracks the sales of physical albums (CDs, vinyl and cassettes) across 100 independent UK record shops.

Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent was also one of the year’s most popular albums overall, coming in at Number 14 on the list of 2023’s Official biggest albums in the UK.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest albums of 2023

The 1975’s Live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – a recording of the group’s 2016 concert at in Blackpool for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge – places second on the Official Record Store Chart year-end list. The collection peaked at Number 2 on the Official Albums Chart on its release in May.

Anne-Marie rounds out an all-British Top 3 on the chart, with her third studio record UNHEALTHY at Number 3. The album narrowly missed out on the Number 1 spot to Travis Scott’s UTOPIA in August.

Elsewhere in the Top 5, Taylor Swift’s folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions makes Number 4, while the highest-placing debut work on the Official Record Store Chart of 2023 comes courtesy of boygenius. The supergroup, comprising singer-songwriters Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, are in at Number 5 with the record. The album became the band’s first chart-topping LP last April.

MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest songs of 2023

A reissue of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising earns the influential 1989 album a place in the year-end Top 10 (6), as Royal Blood’s former chart-topper Back to the Water Below also proved among the year’s most-popular (7).

Despite only being released in November, Bombay Bicycle Club’s sixth studio collection My Big Day makes the Top 10 (8), as do Maisie Peters’ first Number 1 album, The Good Witch (9) and Lana Del Rey's chart-topping Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd.? (10), which became her sixth Number 1 record in the UK last year. 

Other chart-topping albums from 2023 to make the list include; The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds (12), Tom Grennan's What Ifs & Maybes (14), Gorillaz's Cracker Island (16), Blur's The Ballad of Darren (17), The Lathums' From Nothing To A Little Bit More (22), Liam Gallagher's Knebworth '22 (27), Ellie Goulding's Higher Than Heaven (36), Taylor Swift#s 1989 (Taylor's Version) (38) and Courteener's St Jude (39).

The Official Top 40 Record Store Chart 2023

The biggest event of the independent record shop calendar this year takes place 20 April, see all the exclusive Record Store Day releases coming your way in 2024.