STYLES HEADING TO #1 IN BLIGHTY?

Will Harry Styles hit #1 in the U.K. on Friday? Our estimates suggest so, despite the gap moving closer between “Sign of the Times” (Columbia) and Ed Sheeran’s long-running #1 “Shape of You” (Atlantic), which is now #2 on the Official Singles Chart after rocketing ahead of Monday’s runner-up “Galway Girl.” Styles and Sheeran are separated by 8k combined sales with 48 hours to go—Styles had the lead on Monday by 15.5k.

“Sign of the Times” has 47k combined sales to date, while “Shape of You” has sold 39k since Friday thanks in part to its continued popularity on streaming services. Both tracks are still full-price downloads and Styles is outselling Sheeran on the format by 3-1. Downloads aside, if the two singles carry on performing at their daily Spotify stream rate, which was the equivalent of 3k sales for “Shape of You” yesterday and 2k sales for “Sign of the Times,” Styles will end the week at #1 with north of 50k, while Sheeran will trail at 45k.