The Official Top 40 Biggest Artist Albums of 2015 revealed

No prizes for guessing who's at Number 1...
biggest-artist-albums-of-2015.jpg

After making her long-awaited return, OfficialCharts.com can confirm that Adele’s 25 is the official biggest artist album of 2015.

The newly unveiled list, based on Official Charts Company sales and audio streaming data, sees British superstar Adele’s third album bag pole position on the 2015 end of year list. The highly anticipated comeback has sold a staggering 2.496 million copies since it was released just over six weeks ago in November last year. The collection was met with rapturous praise and broke Official Chart records upon its release, becoming the biggest Number 1 album in UK chart history after shifting 800,307 copies in its opening week.

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25 has gone on to rack up huge numbers since; Just 10 days after going on sale, 25 crossed the 1 million sales barrier, and did so in record time, then by day 29 Adele became the fastest artist to smash through the 2 million sales landmark.  By comparison, her previous album 21 took 13 weeks to reach the same milestone.

Figures from music trade body The BPI also reveal that 25 was also the biggest seller globally, having shifted a further 7 million copies in the US alone. 

MORE: The Official Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2015 revealed

While the Top 40 list includes streams after their incorporation into the Official Albums Chart last March, 25 has yet to be made available on streaming services, meaning her figure is made up purely of digital downloads and physical CD purchases.

Meanwhile, Ed Sheeran finishes in second place with his second album X. The collection - released in June 2014 - has continued to enjoy massive success in 2015, returning to Number 1 in July ahead of his sold out Wembley Stadium shows. By the end of the year X finished on 971,000 combined sales (2.66 million in total to date across its lifetime). Further down the tally, Sheeran’s debut + also places at 38, four years after its release.

At Number 3 is Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour with 893,000 combined sales (2.14 million in total). Also released in 2014, Smith continued to have success well into 2015 with the LP, hitting Number 1 on four separate occasions and notched up a record-breaking 67 weeks in the Top 10. Click here to see it’s full UK chart run

MORE: Adele beats FIFA to biggest entertainment hit of 2015

In at Number 4 on the end of year chart and the second biggest album released in 2015 is Elvis Presley’s If I Can Dream. The King’s orchestral re-workings of his biggest hits became his 12th UK Number 1 album in November, giving him the most chart-topping albums for a male artist. Nine weeks later and the album has yet to leave the Top 3 of the Official Albums Chart, combined sales of the posthumous LP by the end of 2015 stood at 881,000.

Rounding off the Top 5 is Justin Bieber’s fifth studio album Purpose with combined sales of 645,000. The collection is the highest in the tally not to reach Number 1, pipped to the post by One Direction’s Made In The A.M in its opening week (their album finishes 14th). However, success of the collection sent a number of its songs into the Official Singles Chart, making him the first living artist to score eight Top 40 entries in the same week.

Other albums released this year that passed over half a million combined sales are Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh (Number 7, 583,000), James Bay’s Chaos And The Calm (Number 8, 518,000), and Coldplay’s A Head Full Of Dreams (Number 9, 507,000).

Other notable entries include Little Mix’s Get Weird, which finishes on the end of year chart at Number 11. Released in November, the album is already the girl group’s biggest of their career, having hit 389,000 combined sales to date.

MORE: The Official Top 40 Most Streamed Songs of 2015 revealed

Further down the tally, Mumford & Sons’ third album Wilder Mind is at 15 (308,000), Years & Years debut Communion finishes at 20 (260,000) and Cilla Black’s Very Best Of, which became her first Number 1 album ever following her death in August, is at 25 on 200,000 combined sales.

The Biggest Artist Albums of 2015 appear below. Click here to see the full Top 100

1 25 ADELE
2 X ED SHEERAN
3 IN THE LONELY HOUR SAM SMITH
4 IF I CAN DREAM ELVIS PRESLEY
5 PURPOSE JUSTIN BIEBER
6 1989 TAYLOR SWIFT
7 I CRY WHEN I LAUGH JESS GLYNNE
8 CHAOS AND THE CALM JAMES BAY
9 A HEAD FULL OF DREAMS COLDPLAY
10 WANTED ON VOYAGE GEORGE EZRA
11 GET WEIRD LITTLE MIX
12 HOZIER HOZIER
13 NEVER BEEN BETTER OLLY MURS
14 MADE IN THE AM ONE DIRECTION
15 WILDER MIND MUMFORD & SONS
16 ANOTHER COUNTRY ROD STEWART
17 TITLE MEGHAN TRAINOR
18 ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE JEFF LYNNE'S ELO
19 HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL FLORENCE & THE MACHINE
20 COMMUNION YEARS & YEARS
21 CHASING YESTERDAY NOEL GALLAGHER'S HIGH FLYING
22 ROYAL BLOOD ROYAL BLOOD
23 A PERFECT CONTRADICTION PALOMA FAITH
24 1000 FORMS OF FEAR SIA
25 THE VERY BEST OF CILLA BLACK
26 BEAUTY BEHIND THE MADNESS WEEKND
27 THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION PAUL SIMON
28 AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO FALL OUT BOY
29 DARK SKY ISLAND ENYA
30 DRONES MUSE
31 CHAPTER ONE ELLA HENDERSON
32 A YEAR OF SONGS ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG
33 III TAKE THAT
34 DELIRIUM ELLIE GOULDING
35 RATTLE THAT LOCK DAVID GILMOUR
36 THE BALCONY CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN
37 LIQUID SPIRIT GREGORY PORTER
38 + ED SHEERAN
39 KEEP THE VILLAGE ALIVE STEREOPHONICS
40 CHRISTMAS MICHAEL BUBLE

©2016 Official Charts Company . All rights reserved.

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Le pauvre homme

0

Totally chuffed to see the latest re-incarnation of ELO there at no. 18, despite only 6 weeks' sales in 2015. From the moment I heard the opening bars of "10538 Overture" (as a 13 year old), they have been my favourite band, despite the brief flirtation with disco!

SN

Stuart naylor

0

I hate all this combined wish it also told pure album sales

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David Farrell

0

"Christmas" by Michael Bublewill now feature in the top 40 best selling albums of the year from now until the end of time.

A

Alexander

0

awesome sales for 1989. released in 2014 and sixth best seller for 2015. must easily be over the 1 million by now. wonder what it has sold overall worldwide.

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Dhruvil Desai

0

Nearly diamond

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Leslie Lees

0

Wolf Alice should have been no.1, by far the best album of 2015

L

LX

0

So, James Bay's 'Chaos And The Calm' is here, but the much better 'Wishes' from Rhodes is not. And Kurt Vile with his 'B'lieve I'm Goin Down' is also not here, but that's a good sign, for artists like him being in a biggest sales chart would be a proof that they'd be corrupting the authenticity of their music.

V

Varun

0

Hi, Official Charts. I own a fan club for the new Iron Maiden album. If you can, can you please post the number of copies Iron Maiden's The Book Of Souls has sold?
Thank you!

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Johnny McVey

0

107,000 copies sold in 2015, Varun, hope that helps!

V

Varun

0

Thank you!

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agnusdeitr

3

Elvis is timeless and the biggest in popular music!

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Leslie Lees

0

the Beatles were bigger

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Spitfire

-1

Sure were!!

C

colm

1

Elvis has 21 No 1s The Beatles has 17.

G

gini

0

Are you sick?

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Leslie Lees

0

worldwide album and singles sales the Beatles sold double that of Elvis Presley

S

steve

0

no she aint its fact you need to look at facts beatles are the biggest selling act of all time period. its all on Wikipedia and is common knowledge. and the beatles wrote all there own music also elvis did not it was written for him fact. that is why the beatles stand above anybody else . do your homework folks b4 u comment. beatles over 700 million tunes sold elvis only 500 million.

S

steve

0

you are correct leslie

P

Paul

0

Incorrect...

P

Paul

0

Officailly Elvis is the biggest selling act of all time..surpassing 1 billion sales in 1991 .. dont believe everything on wikiepidia.

DG

David Gibbs

0

It seems a week never goes by that has someone saying this that or another artist has sold more than the King.The Beatles are the only act likely to have done but usually they are both put at a billion sales.Perhaps one day we will get a definitive answer.It is not Garth Brooks thats for sure.

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Spitfire

0

Elvis has 18 number 1 singles. Do not understand why they included previous re-releases that reached the top as another number one. If this is OK then other acts can claim another number one, including. I"m sure, the Beatles. And why not then do it on the Album charts. I do not know why people praise Elvis by knocking The Beatles, or remind us that Elvis did one better..Tell me what is easier, what Elvis did or what the BEATLES did. If you think what the Beatles did was easier- GO FOR IT..start writing your hit singles and change the sound of music. Lucky Elvis to have professionals write songs for him, and then be called the king of rock and roll, another thing i will never understand.

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Spitfire

0

Elvis from 1956 to 1977 total 21 years preforming..

Beatles from 1963 to 1970... 8 years preforming.

Give or take a few millions records..

I know who is the greatest and made more of a impact - do you???

D

Danie

0

And what's the sales of Title by Meghan Trainor?

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Johnny McVey

0

Almost 300,000

D

Danie

0

I hope the platinum cert then...

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Johnny McVey

0

It's 299,000, according to my sources, so Platinum status is inevitable

V

Varun

0

How the is Iron Maiden's The Book Of Souls not in the top 40? Can we get a top 100?

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Johnny McVey

0

Go to charts and click "end of year" - Iron Maiden are there. They're actually only at number 57, as The Book of Souls only sold about 107,000 copies

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I Am A Stegosaurus

0

Get Weird 11? Don't think so. And plus the message at the beginning is misleading considering I was really surprised it overtook X on its second week.

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Gee Sunray

-1

Adele's voice melts me away in to her musik. Such strong clear voice. She is LIiving legend

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Zoltán Oskovits

0

Dear Official Charts, I would like to know the combined sales of Michael Buble's "Christmas" at No 40. Thank you.

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Johnny McVey

0

Approximately 143,000

V

Varun

0

Mr.Johnny McVey, could you please reveal the combined sales of Iron Maiden's "The Book Of Souls"? (At #57)

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Zoltán Oskovits

1

"Other albums released this year that passed over half a million combined sales are" - you say and you do not mention Taylor Swift's 1989 at Number 6. How many copies did it sell?

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simon_g42

1

1989 was released in 2014.

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Zoltán Oskovits

0

Oh, you are quite right!

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Johnny McVey

0

Sales for Wanted on Voyage please?

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Johnny McVey

0

Will you reveal non-streaming sales too?

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Brian Quinn

7

Amazing success for Elvis. He would have been 81 on 8th January, 2016 and he is still knocking the charts for six.

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Guillermo F. Perez-Argüello

4

The biggest selling album in the UK featuring a non UK artist who, in addition, was only on its soil for 100 minutes and not on a tour, or on vacation, but on a stopover made by an Army transport carrying him and another 100 soldiers from Friedburg, West Germany to Brooklin, NY, in the USA, on March 3, 1960.

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coltheiceman

0

It's an awesome album, I hope that they do another album using the RPO, there's so many great elvis tracks that befit an orchestra

SB

Steven Bruce

0

When get top 100 of the year

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Official Charts

0

Hi Steven, The Top 100 is now live here: http://www.officialcharts.com/charts/end-of-year-artist-albums-chart/