UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company on Fridays. It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200, 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 in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed, this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums only including this data. As of 2021, 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.
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.
History
According to the canon of the OCC, the official British albums chart was the Record Mirror chart from 22 July 1956 to 1 November 1958; the Melody Maker chart from 8 November 1958 to March 1960;the Record 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 a postal strike – for this period, the OCC uses the chart compiled by Melody Maker instead.
In the 1970s the new album chart was revealed at 12:45 pm on Thursdays on BBC Radio 1, and then in the early 1980s moved to 6:05 pm on Wednesday evenings during the Peter Powell and Bruno Brookes shows. In October 1987 it moved to Monday lunchtimes, during the Gary Davies show, and from April to October 1993 it briefly had its show from 7:00–8:00 pm on Sunday evenings, introduced by Lynn Parsons. Since October 1993 it has been included in The Official Chart show from 4:00–5:45 pm on Fridays. A weekly 'Album Chart' show was licensed out to BBC Radio 2 and presented by Simon 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 the UK 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.
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. 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 was Smoke + Mirrors by Imagine Dragons. On 1 March 2015, In the Lonely Hour by Sam Smith became the first album to top the new streaming-incorporated Official Albums Chart.
The weekly Top 75 UK Albums Chart were published in Music Week magazine until 2021. In 2018 Future acquired Music 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 started to be published from this date alongside monthly 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 like the Wombats, Sea Power and Maxïmo 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 was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra for the week ending 22 July 1956. As of the week ending 5 February 2026, the UK Albums Chart has had 1422 different number one albums. The current number one album is How Did I Get Here? by Louis Tomlinson.
Record holders
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, followed by the Beatles, Elvis Presley, U2 and ABBA. 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. Robbie Williams is the solo artist with the most number one albums with 15 as of January 2025, when his soundtrack album to Better 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, jointly, are The Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift, both 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 and Goats 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.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. Until this same month, he also held the record for the most number one albums by a solo artist in a tie with Robbie Williams, however when Williams' XXV 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 14 as of October 2025. This puts her in joint third place as the artist with the most number one album in UK chart history. Swift also jointly holds the record for the most consecutive number one albums with 10, a record she holds with Eminem. Adele is the female solo artist with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 37 weeks. The Spice Girls are the female group with the most weeks at number one, with a total of 18 weeks.
In July 2021, ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits was officially recognised by the Official Charts Company as the first album to spend over 1000 weeks on the Albums Chart, but this total does not include 2014's Gold – 40th Anniversary Edition or additional weeks inside the Top 100 missing from the OCC's database before February 1994.
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's Greatest Hits and then also by ABBA's Gold: Greatest Hits. However, Sgt. Pepper still remains the best-selling studio album in UK chart history. Queen's Greatest Hits has sold over 7 million copies as of July 2022. ABBA's Gold has sold over 6 million, and Sgt. Pepper has sold in excess of 5.4 million copies. The longest-running number one album, both consecutively and non-consecutively, is the soundtrack of the film South 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. It should be noted, however, that the album chart was still in its infancy at this time and the methodology for collecting sales data was limited.
The youngest artist to top the chart is Neil Reid, whose debut album topped the chart in 1972 when he was only 12 years old, while the youngest female artist is Billie Eilish who was 17 years old when she debuted at the top with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The record for the oldest artist to top the charts is Vera Lynn, who was 92 years old when she was at number one with We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn, released in 2009. Lynn, who died in 2020 at the age of 103, also leads the list for the oldest artist to have a chart album, when the 2017 release of Vera Lynn 100, released to mark her 100th birthday, peaked at number 3. Currently, the oldest living male artist to have topped the UK albums chart is Tom Jones, who reached the top in 2021 with new studio album Surrounded By Time at the age of 80, while 95 year old Tony Bennett charted at number 6 on the chart of 8–14 October 2021 with his Lady Gaga duets album Love For Sale, becoming recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to release an album of new material.
In 1980, Kate Bush became the first British female solo artist to have a number-one album in the UK with Never 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,. She is currently in fourth place for artists having the most simultaneous UK Top 40 albums, behind Elvis Presley and David Bowie who both tie for the most simultaneous Top 40 albums, and The Beatles who had eleven in 2009 when remastered versions of their albums were released.
The fastest selling album is 25 by Adele. Released in November 2015, it sold over 800,000 copies in its first week. However, the album Be Here Now by Oasis 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.
In September 2020, The Rolling Stones became the first act to have reached number one in the album chart during six different decades. For solo artists, Elvis Presley was the first artist to score UK number-one albums in five different decades. In 2020, Bruce Springsteen became the first solo artist to score UK number-one albums in five consecutive decades with his twelfth number-one album Letter to You. Just two weeks later, Kylie Minogue became the first female solo artist to have UK number-one albums in five different decades, with her eighth UK number-one album Disco. In November 2021, ABBA became the third group to score a UK number one album in five different decades 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.
The longest number one by a group is Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water which was number one for 33 weeks. 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 with G.I. Blues which stayed at the top for 22 weeks. Adele's album 21 has the most weeks at number one by a female solo artist with 23 weeks, 11 of which were consecutive.
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the year-end chart was With the Beatles by The Beatles in 1963 – they became the first group to achieve this feat. Elton John's Don'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 was Barbra Streisand in 1982, with Love Songs.
The first studio album and non-soundtrack or cast recording album to top the decade-end chart was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles in the 1960s – they became the first group to achieve this. James Blunt's Back 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, with 21.
Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia holds the record for having the lowest one-week sales while at the top of the chart in the modern era, when it was number one the week beginning 15 May 2020 with sales of only 7,317, while in 2021 You Me At Six and Ben Howard became the first artists to have a number one album exit the Top 100 with only one week on the chart. In 2023, The Lottery Winners made the record for the steepest drop from number one when their album Anxiety Replacement Therapy fell out of the Top 200 altogether with second week sales of 880 copies. This occurrence of number one albums dropping out of the top 100 in their second week of release prompted an article in The Guardian newspaper wondering whether the UK album chart was broken.
On 26 August 2022, Aitch became the first artist to chart with an album released in a NFT format when Close to Home debuted at number 2. A week later,
Will of the People by Muse 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.
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. 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 and Stay With The Hollies and K-Tel having three TV-advertised compilations at number 1, 2 and 3 on the chart of 31 December 1972.