Talk:List of best-selling music artists in the United Kingdom in singles sales

The page linked to in the Official Charts Company website only has sales figures down to number 12. Where are the others coming from?

Are we just removing the other charts from 2004 and 2009 or should they be here as well for comparison?

The old page was heavily vandalised (with all the artists names replaced at one point) - how can this be avoided in the future?

Btljs (talk) 09:20, 6 June 2012 (UTC)

As regards the June 2012 List. The OCC did not allow Acts to have the Sales from Hits that they were credited as 'Featured' on. This cost Rihanna over 3 Million Sales. So she is 10th in the List, but would be 7th if her 'Featured' Hits were added in. 86.13.2.211 (talk) 21:19, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Channel 4, who compiled this data, should state explicitly how this data was compiled. This data does NOT include ALL sales in the UK, only data used to compile the charts. While it is reasonably accurate for the later years, data for the first 10 to 15 years of the charts is only partial.

-Although this list is great, are there any updated figures anywhere? Surely channel 4 are not the only people who would attempt such a list (whatever there sources are, of which there are numerous good ones), and there will have been some significant changes for many of the artists

But Channel 4 did NOT Compile the 2004 Singles List. It was Compiled by The Official UK Charts Company. Channel 4 merely Broadcast it - as 'The Ultimate Pop Star'. (On Sunday 22nd February 2004).

Just as in November 2006, VH1 Broadcast the Top 100 Best Selling UK Albums - again Compiled by the OCC. People seem to assume that TV Stations Compile these Best Selling Acts/Albums/Singles Lists - they don't. The OCC do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.4.77.42 (talk) 10:38, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Comments on main page
I've moved the following from the main page and am posting it here for discussion.

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====================================== ABBA should be in 8th place - 10,021,000 UK Singles Sales to Date. It was 10,004,000 in February 2004, when the above List was compiled. They were 8th then, too - Queen were & are 7th.....Someone has added 353,000 Singles to ABBA's Total - wrongly.

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====================================== 80.44.195.181 (talk) 12:28, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Official Charts Company - compiler since 1990s
The OCC came into being in 1990 (as CIN). It became the 'official' chart compiler in 1994. Sales pre-1990 are mainly record company estimates. There were no official sales chart prior to 1969. The BMRB compiled charts from a sample of 250 shops - 5% of all outlets from 1969-82 and Gallup took over with a larger sample until 1994. The OCC didn't have these old chart sales. Take with a pinch of salt these "All Time" lists.(Coachtripfan (talk) 19:42, 24 April 2013 (UTC))

changes to the 2012 list
To make changes to the list (positions or sales figures) there must be a reliable source cited (Official Charts Company is preferable). Btljs (talk) 18:37, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Ed Sheeran
During the pass few years Ed Sheeran have become one of the biggest single units sales. According to Official Charts and BPI he is far ahead of everyone here. Why isn't he even on the list? In fact Ed Sheeran (taking streaming into account) have now 3 out of the 5 biggest selling singles in UK. If there are other artists on the list (like Justin Bieber) with sales and stream equivalent units so should Ed Sheeran.

According to this article from Official Charts Ed Sheeran 3 best selling songs are at over 13 million chart unit sales (including streaming). If Stream is not included his 3 best selling singles would total only 2.7 million:

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/ed-sheerans-official-top-20-biggest-songs-on-the-official-uk-chart__33491/

This other article says he have 22 songs that sold over 1 million chart sales units:

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/ed-sheerans-official-top-40-biggest-songs__34350/

Based on BPI certification search engine and Official Charts articles Ed Sheeran would be #01 on the list with over 50 million song chart sales (this includes streaming).

https://www.bpi.co.uk/brit-certified/

Some Artist listed are pure sales and others include streaming chart untits
Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Eminem, Little Mix and Ariana Grande UK Sales numbers on this list include streaming equivalent sales units (that represent a big share of their totals while Madonna, Rihanna, Michael Jackson, The Beatles and most other artists listed here only include PURE SALES from older lists published on Official Chart, BBC or Channel 4. Some of the artists like Beatles and Abba (and more) even only includes their Physical single sales (not even downloads are included on those numbers!) making them even lower than should really be.

Also a lot of artists that even sold over 5 million pure sales (and some even over 10 million with streaming units equivalent) are missing making this list useless.

Something should be done about this as the list is of no use as it is right now. Wasn't it supposed to be best-selling (so allowing only sales? (not most successful that includes sales and streams or more streamed).

Justin Bieber & This List Principles
Why does his sales include streaming equivalent and all songs where is just a featuring artists? (even remixes where half of the song sales do not even include him).

Justin Bieber have 16.6 million chart sales units as lead artist (only 12.8 million as solo effort) plus 4.8 million chart sales units as co-lead and 9.8 million as featuring artist. This gives him a total of 31.2 million chart equivalent sales combined equivalent units (this includes pure sales and streaming equivalent) only if we count all his featurings (including 3.6 million from "Despacito", a song where Bieber is not even on half the sales and streams of the song). These numbers are from BPI certification so they all include streaming equivalents and are not only pure sales (as the list used to be before last time I've checked a while ago). As lead and co-lead he would have 21.4 million equivalent chart sales units (Again: still including streaming!)

Not sure what are Justin Bieber pure sales numbers but based on the dates of BPI certifications and Official Charts articles he much probably have sold less than 12 million singles/songs pure sales even including him as a featuring artist. On this 2021 Official Chart Company article says "Sorry" is his best selling pure sales song with 742k pure sales (2.8 million chart sales including streaming).

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/justin-biebers-top-40-biggest-songs-on-the-official-uk-chart__28196/

Now another questions: Do singles where he is the featuring artist really count as his single sales? They shouldn't but it's not for me to decide.

His streaming equivalent sales should be also used? (because it's only used on some artist, not all). He is not the only artist on the list with sales way inflated by featurings as well (verify that please).

What about songs where artists co-lead? Count equal for both artists (usually the song is only on one of the artists album and rarely on both - or it's a benefit song - but recently what before were featurings are co-leads anyway).

Over 90 of 100 best selling songs of all time in UK are from the past 15 years when you include streaming as the formula for streaming equivalents is way higher than pure sales ever were (in UK 100 streams are 1 unit).

Maybe there should be a list that included streams and other for pure sales. Official Charts often releases both numbers when they do articles about it but the information released is quite less than what we want to have. How can we compare a CD-single or even a download to only 100 streams? Apparently they do it estimating that on average every single bought is only heard 100 times.As those 100 same streams also count for album equivalent sales so in reality are just 50 streams for the single as the other 50 go to the album - usually a Cd-single have 3 tracks so they estimate on average during a lifetime one only listen to each cd-single bought in the past or present 16 times to make that streaming equivalent number!! Reallly? I'm sure the average listener hears it a lot more in a lifetime than just 16 times! Streaming equivalent are a mess because rules are completely diferent country to country and in some other countries you need to have 2 or 3 times more streams to have the same equivalent chart unit sales.

Probably that's why Official Charts many times gives numbers for streaming, pure sales and the recent chart unit sales they are trying to promote (including streaming and sales).

Maybe this article needs that too (not one list but 3 different lists for sales, streaming and chart units). First time I was here was ages ago and this was only based on Physical singles. Later was based also on digital sales (so pure sales). Now it takes streams into account for some artists and others still have the old numbers just for pure sales as well but it's a big mess as lots of artists are missing and some numbers are already over 10 years old for some artists but a few months old for other artists.

Rihanna

 * As Main Artist
 * Don’t Stop the Music - 400,000
 * Disturbia - 400,000
 * Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) - 763,068
 * Russian Roulette - 400,000
 * Take a Bow - 465,000
 * Rude Boy - 600,000
 * Only Girl (In the World) - 1,040,000 >>1,080,000 (2013, OCC million sellers)
 * What’s My Name? (feat. Drake) - 768,669
 * S&M - 643,000
 * We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris) - 1,300,000
 * Princess of China (Coldplay & Rihanna) - 400,000
 * Diamonds - 1,000,000
 * California King Bed - 200,000
 * Cheers (Drink to That) - 200,000
 * Pon De Replay - 200,000
 * Shut Up and Drive - 200,000
 * S.O.S. - 200,000
 * Te Amo - 200,000
 * Unfaithful - 400,000
 * Where Have You Been - 422,200
 * You Da One - 200,000
 * Stay (feat. Mikky Ekko) - 600,000
 * Hate That I Love You (feat. Ne-Yo) - 200,000
 * Rehab (feat. Justing Timberlake) - 200,000


 * As Featured Artist
 * Who’s That Chick? (David Guetta feat. Rihanna) - 400,000
 * Take Care (Drake feat. Rihanna) - 400,000
 * Live Your Life (T.I. feat. Rihanna) - 400,000
 * Fly (Nicki Minaj feat. Rihanna) - 200,000
 * Love the Way You Lie (Eminem feat. Rihanna) - 1,200,000 >>1,110,000 (2013 OCC million sellers)
 * The Monster (Eminem feat. Rihanna) - 600,000
 * Can’t Remember to Forget You (Shakira feat. Rihanna) - 200,000
 * Run This Town (with Jay-Z & Kanye West) - 400,000 (Gold cert. includes streaming)

Total: 15,201,737


 * Sources
 * Official Charts Flashback: 2008 – Rihanna's Take A Bow
 * Rihanna scores first million-selling UK solo single
 * The Top 20 biggest selling singles of 2011 revealed!
 * BPI Certified Awards
 * The Official Top 40 Biggest Selling Singles Of 2012 revealed!
 * Adele and Rihanna score UK's latest million selling singles — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rudeby88 (talk • contribs) 23:21, 22 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Probably quite a good estimate. Don't forget you can't count a BPI award from July 2014 onwards as an indication of sales any more as it includes streaming. This affects Love the Way You Lie and Run This Town, but you've also underestimated sales of Only Girl... according to OCC and, given that all the songs with certifications will have sold more than that you end up with a minimum total of 14,950,000 and a maximum several million above this, although you could narrow it down by looking at chart positions after each certification. I'd put 95% confidence around 15M to 15.5M, but for WP purposes 14.95 is what we can prove. Btljs (talk) 08:08, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

All of the Lights was certified on 22 July 2013, acording to the BPI. --Rudeby88 (talk) 01:46, 5 March 2015 (UTC)
 * All of the Lights (with Kanye West and Drake) - 200,000
 * Yup. Puts her back over 15M (confirmed) sales then. Btljs (talk) 10:30, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Lady Gaga

 * As Main Artist
 * Poker Face - 1,100,000
 * Bad Romance - 1,000,000
 * Just Dance - 935,000
 * Telephone - 694,000
 * Born This Way - 690,000
 * The Edge of Glory - 600,000
 * Paparazzi - 585,000
 * Alejandro - 436,000
 * Judas - 302,000
 * Applause - 215,000
 * LoveGame - 200,000
 * Judas - 200,000
 * Marry the Night - 200,000
 * Do What U Want - 200,000

Total: 7,357,000 --Rudeby88 (talk) 03:41, 7 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Sources
 * Lady Gaga's Official Top 10 Biggest Selling UK Singles Revealed!
 * BPI Certified Awards

Page needs complete overhaul or deleting
Originally this page used a 2012 list based on actual sales, since then artists have been added based on their certifications which are streaming and sales. The list either needs splitting into two: pure sales and certificated 'sales' or removing altogether. As it stands it's misleading. Btljs (talk) 17:07, 28 February 2022 (UTC)