The UK’s 10 best-selling albums of 2014 were all made by British artists for the first time ever.
Singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran topped the list with ‘X’, which sold 1.7m copies whilst Sam Smith’s debut LP, ‘In The Lonely Hour’, claimed second spot after selling 1.25m copies.
George Ezra’s first album, ‘Wanted on Voyage’ and Paolo Nutini’s ‘Caustic Love’ placed third and fourth respectively.
Other artists to feature in the list included Coldplay, One Direction and Take That.
Pink Floyd – who released their first album in 20 years in 2014 – placed ninth whilst the only female artist to make the list, Paloma Faith, had the sixth best-selling album with ‘A Perfect Contradiction’.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI and Brit awards, praised the success of the top three artists for "catching fire around the world".
The ‘Thinking Out Loud’ hitmaker and the ‘Stay With Me’ singer retained their positions of number one and two when it came to the UK’s most-streamed artists, after receiving over one billion streams.
One Direction, Coldplay and Calvin Harris, too, all achieved the same feat whilst Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ track ‘Uptown Funk’ broke the record as the most streamed track in a single week. The number one hit achieved 2.5 million plays in the last week of December.
UK official artist albums chart 2014:
1. Ed Sheeran, ‘X’
2. Sam Smith, ‘In the Lonely Hour’
3. George Ezra, ‘Wanted on Voyage’
4. Paolo Nutini, ‘Caustic Love’
5. Coldplay, ‘Ghost Stories’
6. Paloma Faith, ‘A Perfect Contradiction’
7. One Direction, ‘Four’
8. Olly Murs, ‘Never Been Better’
9. Pink Floyd, ‘The Endless River’
10. Take That, ‘III’
UK official charts most streamed artists 2014:
1. Ed Sheeran
2. Sam Smith
3. Arctic Monkeys
4. Eminem
5. Calvin Harris
6. Coldplay
7. One Direction
8. Beyoncé
9. Katy Perry
10. Bastille
UK’s best-selling albums revealed
