Lewis Capaldi has claimed the new distinction of having the UK’s most-streamed song with “Someone You Loved.” Its running total of 562m streams, from audio and video combined, takes it past Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You” to claim the title in Official Charts Company data. The news arrives on the day that the Official Singles Chart celebrates the 70th anniversary of its first publication on November 14, 1952.
Ever tongue-in-cheek, Capaldi said: “I’m the streaming king! In the UK! On this particular song! I feel huge, I feel massive, I feel my loins expanding as I become more and more aware of the reality of my coronation as the king of music. Thank you. A very large accolade that I will now shoulder for the rest of my life, or until Ed Sheeran releases his next album…”
A swathe of new OCC data reveals that a grand total of 4.55 billion singles, 683 billion audio streams, and 128 billion video streams have been consumed in the UK, for an overall tally of 811 billion total streams. 1,404 singles have reached No.1, from the first, Al Martino’s “Here In My Heart,” to the current chart-topper, Taylor Swift’s “Anti Hero.”
Elton John’s “Something About The Way You Look Tonight”/“Candle In The Wind 1997” remains the biggest-selling single since records began, with 4.94 million sales including latter-day chart units from streaming and downloads. The most recent million seller is Swift’s 2014 hit “Shake It Off,” which reached that threshold earlier this year.
Other data in the OCC’s chart anniversary analysis reveals that the average No.1 single is streamed 6.82m times per week. Some 2.83m streams are required to make the Top 10, and 1.31m for the Top 40. The highest total of No.1s in a chart year came in 2000, when 42 different songs achieved the feat; in the 2020s, the number has returned to its 1970s average of between 16 and 17 per year.
Buy or stream “Someone You Loved” on Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent.