As we head into the final quarter of the year, OfficialCharts.com can reveal which records are on track to finish as the biggest of 2018.
Drake is currently leading the way with God’s Plan; the nine-week chart-topper and lead single from his Scorpion album has shifted 1.46 million across downloads, audio and video streaming. Drake’s second Number 1 hit of 2018 Nice For What also makes the Top 10 at Number 6 (1.06m).
Close behind Drake is Calvin Harris & Dua Lipa’s One Kiss. The track spent eight weeks at the summit and has combined sales of 1.39m.
When it comes to albums, The Greatest Showman continues to be the runaway success of the year, shifting 1.2m across all formats. The cast recording from the hit film has logged 21 weeks at Number 1 to date and seen off challenges from huge acts like Snow Patrol, Kanye West, James Bay and Manic Street Preachers during its time at the top.
The album has shone across all formats throughout the year, helping it stay at the top end of the charts. 46% of its total figure is physical CD and vinyl sales, while 34% is streaming and 19% is from downloads.
Perched behind The Greatest Showman is George Ezra’s Staying At Tamara’s (435k), which debuted at Number 1 in April and has logged 26 weeks inside the Top 10.
Singles
Rudimental’s These Days ft. Macklemore, Jess Glynne and Dan Caplen – Number 1 for a single week in April – has topped 1.25m combined sales and is 2018’s third biggest song so far. These Days was key to Jess Glynne breaking the record for being the British female soloist with the most Number 1 hits, now tallying at seven.
Keala Settle’s This Is Me from The Greatest Showman soundtrack is at Number 4 (1.15m), while George Ezra’s Shotgun – the UK’s official song of the summer – places fifth of 2018 so far overall (1.11m), while another George tune, Paradise, lands at 8 (973k).
Dua Lipa makes two more appearances in the YTD Top 40; IDGAF is at 9 (941k) and 2017 chart-topper New Rules is still a major player well into this year, placing 17th. Portugal. The Man’s slow-burner Feel It Still – which took 33 weeks from its first entry point to finally peak at Number 3 – is tenth. The next top-selling breakthrough single is Lil Dicky’s viral Number 1 Freaky Friday, featuring Chris Brown, at Number 11 (881k).
Video streams began to be counted toward the Official Chart in the most recent quarter of the year, from July, and the most streamed song is Maroon 5 and Cardi B's Girls Like You, with 33m plays – it's at 51 on the overall tally of the year so far.
Last year's biggest album from Ed Sheeran, Divide, is still getting healthy numbers in 2018 on 427K, ahead of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which was released in July, is already in fourth place, on 256k.
Drake's Scorpion, also released in July, is fifth biggest of 2018 so far (236K), while Dua Lipa scores the best-selling album by a female artist of the year so far, with her self-titled debut in seventh place, on 186k. Further down the chart, Emimen's Kamikaze – surprise-released in September – is 11th, on 139k, overtaking the tally accrued by his previous album Revival, which is 13th on 134k.
The biggest debut album of 2018 so far goes to Essex singer Anne-Marie's Speak Your Mind, boosted by hit single 2002 and various guest vocal spots – it's 14th best-selling of the year (124k). The next biggest debut is Camila Cabello's first collection Camila, at 22. Both albums landed inside the Official Albums Chart Top 5 in their opening week.
Other big albums released this year include the late XXXTentacion’s Question Mark (25); Ariana Grande's chart-topping Sweetener from August (28); and Snow Patrol's Wildness, the band's highest charting album in 10 years back in June, is now the 30th best-seller of the year.
