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For the purposes of calculating sales, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, the most notable being the inclusion of digital downloads in 2004.
Contents
- Best selling singles based on paid for purchases
- Best selling songs based on combined sales
- References
The best-selling single in the UK is "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", a double A-side released by Elton John following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Since September 1997, the single has sold over 4.93 million copies in the UK.
Sales of singles have been monitored and charted in the UK since 1952, when Percy Dickins of New Musical Express (NME) telephoned around 20 record stores and aggregated their best-selling singles into a hit parade. Dickins published this Top 12 chart in NME on 14 November 1952. Since then, two singles have sold over 3 million copies – "Candle in the Wind 1997" / "Something About the Way You Look Tonight", and "Do They Know It's Christmas?", a charity single by Band Aid released in aid of victims of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. A further five singles have sold more than 2 million copies.
The highest-selling by a solo female artist is "Believe" by Cher – released in October 1998, it has sold over 1.8 million copies in the UK. Boney M. have two entries in the top 10 and The Beatles have three in the top 40.
The highest-selling single not to top the UK Singles Chart is "Last Christmas" / "Everything She Wants" by Wham!. Released in December 1984, the single sold more than 500,000 copies in its first week, but was kept off number one by "Do They Know It's Christmas?", and peaked at number two. It has since sold a total of 1.77 million copies.
The highest-selling single in the 21st century is "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, which has sold over 1.81 million; it overtook "Anything Is Possible" / "Evergreen" by Will Young in 2015.
Best-selling singles based on paid-for purchases
Until June 2014, only a paid download or a purchase of a physical single counted as a sale. Based on this definition, these are the 40 best-selling singles in the UK.
Best-selling songs based on combined sales
From 2014* streaming has counted towards sales (sometimes called "combined sales" or "chart sales") at the rate of 100 streams equal to one download or physical purchase up to the end of 2016. Based on this, the songs with over 2 million combined sales are as follows:
Assumes minimal streaming since 2014.
* Although streaming was added to the singles chart in June 2014, total combined sales were backdated to the start of the year.
Four other songs (not featured in the main list) have been certified 3× Platinum, meaning that they have combined sales of over 1.8 million: "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. and Pharrell Williams, "All of Me" by John Legend, "Sorry" by Justin Bieber", "Wake Me Up" by Avicii and "Love Yourself" by Justin Bieber.