The Top 10 biggest selling X Factor debut singles and albums revealed!

Ahead of tonight’s X Factor final, the Official Charts Company reveal the Top 10 biggest selling debut singles and debut albums by all of the X Factor acts to date.
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Ahead of tonight’s X Factor final, the Official Charts Company reveal the Top 10 biggest selling debut singles and debut albums by all of the X Factor acts to date.

Later this evening, Christopher Maloney, Jahmene Douglas and James Arthur will begin battling it out to win the 2012 series of the X Factor, and a once-in-a-lifetime chance of a major label recording contract.

However, according to the Official Charts Company’s analysis of all the show’s former contestants, they could all already be winners. The Top 10 biggest selling debut singles and albums by previous X Factor stars is dominated exclusively by acts who made it into the final three of each year’s competition.

2008 winner Alexandra Burke’s Hallelujah is the biggest selling debut single by an X Factor act, having sold 1.2 million copies to date. There have only been 123 million selling singles in the 60 year history of the Official Singles Chart, and X Factor stars' debut singles account for three of them (four if you include Leona Lewis' follow-up single, Bleeding Love); the other two are 2005 winner Shayne Ward’s That’s My Goal (which is Number 2 in our countdown with sales of 1.1 million sales to date), and 2010 winner Matt Cardle’s When We Collide (Number 3 in our countdown with over a million sales). The biggest selling debut single by a runner up is What Makes You Beautiful (Number 6) by One Direction, who came third in 2010’s competition, while debut releases by JLS (who came second in 2008), and Olly Murs (who came second in 2009), also make it into the Top 10.

The biggest selling debut album by an X Factor contestant is 2006 winner Leona LewisSpirit, which has sold over 3 million copies to date. JLS’ self-title debut is at Number 2 with sales of over 1.4 million copies, while Alexandra Burke’s Overcome is at Number 3 with sales of 816,000 copies. The Top 5 is completed by One Direction’s Up All Night (777,000 sales to date) and Olly Murs’ self-titled debut album (761,000 sales).

The full Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Singles And Albums are as follows:

The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Singles

  TRACK TITLE ARTIST X FACTOR YEAR FINAL PLACING SALES TO DATE
01 Hallelujah Alexandra Burke 2008 1 1,200,000
02 That's My Goal Shayne Ward 2005 1 1,100,000
03 When We Collide Matt Cardle 2010 1 1,000,000
04 A Moment Like This Leona Lewis 2006 1 895,000
05 The Climb Joe McElderry 2009 1 807,000
06 What Makes You Beautiful One Direction 2010 3 781,000
07 Beat Again JLS 2008 2 556,000
08 When You Believe Leon Jackson 2007 1 506,000
09 Cannonball Little Mix 2011 1 465,000
10 Please Don't Let Me Go Olly Murs 2009 2 401,000

© 2012 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

The Official Top 10 Biggest Selling X Factor Debut Albums

  ALBUM TITLE ARTIST X FACTOR YEAR FINAL PLACING SALES TO DATE
01 Spirit Leona Lewis 2006 1 3,000,000
02 JLS JLS 2008 2 1,400,000
03 Overcome Alexandra Burke 2008 1 816,000
04 Up All Night One Direction 2010 3 777,000
05 Olly Murs Olly Murs 2009 2 761,000
06 G4 G4 2004 2 611,000
07 Heaven Rebecca Ferguson 2010 2 586,000
08 Shayne Ward Shayne Ward 2005 1 536,000
09 Journey South Journey South 2005 3 414,000
10 Rhydian Rhydian 2007 2 406,000

© 2012 The Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

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