U.K. MIDWEEKS: WELCOME TO THE ED SHEERAN SHOW

There are some icy winds moving across High Street Kensington as Max Lousada’s Warner U.K. rules the Top 50 at Official Charts, iTunes and Spotify U.K. thanks to a little known singer/songwriter called Ed Sheeran. His latest, ÷ (Atlantic), has 432k combined sales at mid-week and looks set to smash his forecasted figure of 500k.

To date, 63% of ÷'s sales are physical, 31% digital and 6% streaming equivalent sales. The set will be the biggest opening week for an album since Adele’s 25 (XL) logged 800k in 2015. On the Official Albums Chart, ÷ is #1 while its predecessors x and + are #4 and #5.

On the Official Singles Chart, all 16 album tracks look set to enter the Top 40 with “Shape of You” still #1, “Castle on the Hill” #2 and new entries “Galway Girl” at #4 and “Perfect” at #5.

The whole album is occupying spots #1 through #16 on Spotify’s U.K. Top 50, and Sheeran has eight songs in the iTunes singles Top 20, with the normal and deluxe versions of ÷ at #1 and #2 on albums.

Back on the Official Albums tally, Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human (Columbia) is #2, followed by last week’s #1, Stormzy with Gang Signs & Prayer (#Merky). “Something Just Like This” (Parlophone) by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay is #5 at singles, while Lorde’s “Green Light” (Virgin EMI) starts at #24.