ED SHEERAN CONQUERS AND DIVIDES
Ed Sheeran has sold a mammoth 207k copies of his third album, ÷ (Atlantic), in the U.K. after just 24 hours on sale, with 25k pre-orders taking his total tally to 232k. That’s 68k less than Adele’s blockbuster 25 did in 2015, and doesn’t include streams. Speaking of which, Sheeran smashed Spotify records with the best first-day streams for an album with 56.7m. Cor, blimey!
÷ has already sold more than its predecessor x did in one week. The Spotify number is nearly double the 29m previous record holder, The Weeknd, achieved with Starboy in November 2016.
Said Atlantic U.K. President Ben Cook: "Ed is an artist that inspires a generation, and the release of Divide is a global event. It's great to see so many people across the world respond to this brilliant new work in such an unprecedented manner.
"As the way we release music changes, Ed continues to shape culture and how it evolves. It’s early days, but we’re really excited to see what we can achieve alongside Ed and his management on what is an outstanding landmark record.”
Sheeran’s “Shape of You” has smashed best one-day streams for a track with 10.1m, and he also has the best one-day streams for an artist with 68.6m. Upon release, all 16 tracks from ÷ went straight into Spotify's Global Top 50 streaming chart, and are in Spotify’s Top 50 in 13 markets (U.K., Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland). In the U.K. (and Ireland) the album makes up the entire Top 16.
