Archive for March, 2017

Ed Sheeran claims a fourth week at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart

Friday, March 31st, 2017

Despite huge first-week sales, Take That couldn’t topple Ed Sheeran’s ÷ from the Number 1 spot. The trio score this week’s highest new entry on the Official Albums Chart at 2, notching up 113,200 across physical, download and streaming equivalent sales.

It means Ed claims the Official Chart double for a fourth week, as Shape Of You logs a mammoth 12th week at the summit.

Albums

James Blunt scores his fifth Official Albums Chart Top 10 with The Afterlove, new at 6, while Scottish alt-rockers The Jesus and Mary Chain return to the Top 40 for the first time in over two decades with Damage And Joy at 16, and Southampton punk band Creeper are a new entry at 18 with Eternity In Your Arms.

Take That’s 2005 retrospective of nineties hits – Never Forget: The Ultimate Collection – rockets 67 places to Number 25 following the band’s appearance on ITV’s Saturday Night Takeaway last week; Steel Panther score their third Top 40 album with Lower The Bar, new at 26; and Michael Bublé’s Nobody But Me also zooms up the chart, climbing 41 slots to land at 27.

Singer-songwriter Steve Hackett lands a ninth Top 40 album with The Night Siren, new at 28, Phil Collins’ hits retrospective The Singles bounds 39 places to 35, while Trey Songz is new at 40 with Tremaine – The Album.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Albums Chart in full

Singles

Ed’s grip on the Top 3 has loosened, with Galway Girl at 2 and Drake’s Passionfruit climbing a place to Number 3. Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson’s Symphony lifts two places to 4, and Ed’s Castle On The Hill completes the Top 5.

Meanwhile, Kygo and Selena Gomez’s It Ain’t Me rebounds 12 spots to 7, Issues by Julia Michaels edges closer to the Top 10 at 13, up 15 places, and Bruno Mars’ That’s What I Like moves ten rungs to 16.

Zayn scores this week’s highest new entry with Still Got Time ft. Partynextdoor, entering at 24, Lorde’s Green Light shifts 14 places to 26, and Rag’n’Bone Man’s Skin re-enters the Top 40 at 30 following the unveiling of its accompanying music video this week.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Mass Effect: Andromeda takes number one

Monday, March 27th, 2017

Even if the reviewers were hard on Mass Effect: Andromeda it should come as no surprise that it dislodged Ghost Recon: Wildlands from number on the UK retail charts this week. However, it didn’t manage to beat the first week performances of Mass Effect 2 and 3, which is somewhat surprising particularly given that Mass Effect 2 only launched on PC and Xbox 360 day one. Of course, in those days (2010) digital sales were minimal.

Mass Effect: Andromeda becomes the third biggest launch at UK retail in 2017 behind Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Horizon: Zero Dawn. And the sales were split as follows PS4: 55%, Xbox One 41%, PC 4%.

All Formats (all prices):

1. Mass Effect: Andromeda / EA Games (new)
2. Ghost Recon: Wildlands / Ubisoft
3. Lego Worlds / Warner Bros.
4. Horizon: Zero Dawn / Sony
5. Grand Theft Auto V / Rockstar
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Nintendo
7. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
8. Rocket League / 505 Games
9. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision
10. Forza Horizon 3 / Microsoft

Thios gaming news can be discussed here

Ed Sheeran claims the Official Chart double for a third week

Friday, March 24th, 2017

Ed Sheeran records another week of strong sales with his ÷ album on this week’s Official Chart.

The singer-songwriter once again holds the top spots on the Official Albums Chart and Official Singles Chart simultaneously this week, with ÷ logging a third stint at Number 1 and single Shape Of You racking up its 11th week at the summit.

Drake was Ed’s closest competition this week – his seventh album More Life lands at Number 2 with 63,000 equivalent sales. Meanwhile, Vera Lynn enters at 3 with her new album 100, setting a huge UK chart record in the process.

Singles

Behind Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You (1), the singer continues to hold the Top 3, with Galway Girl at 2 and Castle On The Hill at 3.

This week’s highest new entry goes to Drake’s Passionfruit, which enters at Number 4. A total of 12 songs from the star’s More Life album enter the Top 40 this week, with his Giggs collaboration KMT also reaching the Top 10 at Number 9.

Elsewhere, Martin Jensen’s Solo Dance lifts four places to 8, and Anne-Marie’s Ciao Adios is up ten spots to Number 10 – her first Top 10 as a headline artist.

Finally, there are three big climbers in this week’s Top 40: Zedd & Alessia Cara’s Stay climbs 11 spots to Number 12, Bruno Mars’ That’s What I Like jumps ten places to 25, and Julia Michaels’ Issues lifts eight to 28.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Ghost Recon: Wildlands retains top spot in UK retail charts

Monday, March 20th, 2017

There’s not a huge amount to tell you about this week’s retail top ten, with the UK market largely as it was the week before. Ghost Recon: Wildlands retains first place, but beyond that the top ten merely shuffles itself around

Here’s the GfK Chart-track top in full:

1. Ghost Recon: Wildlands / Ubisoft
2. Lego Worlds / Warner Bros.
3. Horizon: Zero Dawn / Sony
4. Grand Theft Auto V / Take-Two
5. FIFA 17 / EA
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Nintendo
7. Rocket League / 505 Games
8. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision
9. Minecraft (Xbox) / Microsoft
10. Forza Horizon 3 / Microsoft

This gaming news can be discussed here

Ed Sheeran boasts another huge week of sales

Friday, March 17th, 2017

Ed Sheeran continues to prove unstoppable as his new album ÷ logs another week of stellar sales on the Official Chart.

The singer-songwriter’s third album has shifted another 304,000 equivalent units over the last seven days to log a second stint at Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. Last week the album set a record as the fastest-selling album by a male artist ever with 672,000 sales.

Ed also claims the Official Chart double for a second week, as Shape Of You notches up a tenth week at the summit with 106,000 sales across all formats. All 16 of ÷’s songs hold inside the Top 40 this week, nine of which are in the Top 10. Behind Shape Of You is Galway Girl (2) and Castle On The Hill (3).

Elsewhere on this week’s Official Singles Chart, The Chainsmokers’ and Coldplay’s collaboration Something Just Like This rebounds three places to Number 4, and Danish DJ/producer Martin Jensen vaults from 25 to 12 with Solo Dance.

Zedd and Alessia Cara’s Stay zooms up 15 places to a new high at 23, rising star Julia Michaels cracks the Top 40 with her debut single Issues, up eight places to 36, and finally, Steps debut at Number 37 with their comeback track Scared Of The Dark, marking the group’s first Top 40 appearance in 16 years.

Albums

Over on the Official Albums Chart, six new albums enter the Top 40, with this week’s highest new entry going to Laura Marling. The singer-songwriter’s sixth album Semper Femina enters at Number 5 to become her fifth Top 10 collection.

Further down, Soft Cell and Marc Almond’s Hits And Pieces debuts at 7, Circa Waves’ Different Creatures is new at 11, and the Motion Picture Cast Recording of Beauty & The Beast enchants the Number 12 slot.

Cambridge rock band Mallory Knox land at 18 with their fourth album Wired, just ahead of US band The Shins, whose fifth LP Heartworms is at 19. Meanwhile, The Beatles’ classic Abbey Road album returns to the Top 40 for the first time in eight years at 21 due to a vinyl promotion, and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is back at 29.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is biggest launch this year in UK

Monday, March 13th, 2017

Trade body UKIE has revealed that Ubisoft’s open world shooter Ghost Recon: Wildlands had the biggest launch this year, beating the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to get there.

It edged out Horizon: Zero Dawn to claim first place, with Guerrilla Games’ open world adventure only holding the title of biggest launch for a week, and Lego Worlds couldn’t do much to stop its strong launch either.

Here’s last week’s top 10 in full:

1. Ghost Recon: Wildlands / Ubisoft (new)
2. Horizon: Zero Dawn / Sony
3. Lego Worlds / Warner Bros. Interactive (new)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Nintendo
5. Grand Theft Auto V / Rockstar
6. Nier: Automata / Square Enix (new)
7. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
8. Rocket League / 505 Games
9. 1-2 Switch / Nintendo
10. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision

This gaming news can be discussed here

Ed Sheeran smashes Official Chart records

Friday, March 10th, 2017

Ed has claimed the chart double as Shape Of You leads the way on the Official Singles Chart, notching up 141,000 combined chart sales. All 16 songs on ÷ feature inside the Top 20, something that no artist has come close to achieving before and is a reflection of the sheer scale of this release and its broad appeal.

Behind Shape Of You, Ed holds the entire Top 5 – the first time an act has ever achieved this – with Galway Girl (2), Castle On The Hill (3), Perfect (4) and New Man (5). And with nine songs in the Top 10 today, Ed sets a new record for landing the most Top 10 singles from one album, having scored 10 from ÷ so far (How Would You Feel (Paean) is Number 11 this week but has also charted inside the Top 10 previously). The previous record holder was Calvin Harris, who landed nine Top 10 singles from his 18 Months album.

Aside from Ed Sheeran’s new entries, two more songs enter this week’s singles Top 40: Lorde’s new single Green Light debuts Number 28, and a new version of Little Mix’s No More Sad Songs featuring Machine Gun Kelly is at 39.

Over on the Official Albums Chart, eight more new albums land inside this week’s Top 40: Windy City by US bluegrass-country singer Alison Krauss (6), Collabro’s third album Home (7) and Sleaford Mods’ 10th record English Tapas (12).

Further down, Daniel O’Donnell’s Back Home Again debuts at 14, Last Place by US indie band Grandaddy opens at 18, Volcano by British group Temples is at 23 We Are X by Japanese rockers X Japan enters at 27, and The Gold Collection by Irish musical duo Foster & Allen is at 34.

See this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart Update in full

Horizon beats Zelda to number one in the gaming charts

Monday, March 6th, 2017

Last week was a huge week for the UK video game retail with the launch of Nintendo Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and PS4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn. Perhaps no massive surprise that Horizon topped the charts given the massive advantage in installed base that the PS4 has over Switch and Wii U, but still very impressive as Horizon: Zero Dawn became the biggest launch of the year thus far and the biggest new IP launch on PS4 to date (beating No Man’s Sky). It’s the biggest launch on PS4 since Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. The Switch edition of Breath of the Wild is the third biggest UK launch of a Zelda game (trailing Wind Waker on Gamecube and Twilight Princess on Wii).

Elsewhere in the charts other Switch titles also did well as 1-2-Switch came in fourth and Super Bomberman R managed seventh. Just Dance 2017 re-entered the chart in 24th on the back of the release of the Switch version, while Skylanders: Imaginators failed to chart as it proved the least popular launch title at retail.

Finally at number 19 (all formats) was the retail edition of The Walking Dead: A New Frontier from Telltale Games that launched this week.

All Formats (all prices):

1. Horizon: Zero Dawn / Sony (new)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild / Nintendo (new)
3. Grand Theft Auto V / Rockstar
4. 1-2-Switch / Nintendo (new)
5. For Honor / Ubisoft
6. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
7. Super Bomberman R / Konami (new)
8. Rocket League / 505 Games
9. Sniper Elite 4 / Sold Out Sales & Marketing
10. Battlefield 1 / EA Games

This gaming news can be discussed here

Ed Sheeran rules the Official Singles Chart for an eighth week

Friday, March 3rd, 2017

There’s no stopping Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You, with two new remixes of the song helping it to celebrate an eighth week at Number 1, with bumper sales and streams.

A Major Lazer remix and a special collaboration version with Stormzy, which the pair debuted at the BRIT Awards last week, count toward Shape Of You’s overall chart placing and have seen the song score 144,385 combined chart sales, racking up 10.95 million streams in the last seven days. It’s Shape Of You’s biggest chart week since its debut at Number 1 back in January.

The Chainsmokers and Coldplay vault 28 places with another BRIT Awards collaboration, Something Just Like This is up to Number 2.

New entries and high climbers

Aside from his cameo on Shape Of You at the top, Stormzy makes seven further appearances in the Top 40 – the highest being Big For Your Boots, which climbs 11 places to 6. Other tracks from his chart-topping debut album Gang Signs and Prayer to make an impression are new entries Cold (21), Bad Boys (22) First Things First (25), Mr Skeng (29) and Kehlani collaboration Cigarettes & Cush (30). Previous Top 10 single Shut Up also zooms 83 places to land at 37.

Every single track from Gang Signs and Prayer has made the Top 100 – Stormzy is only the fourth act to achieve that feat, after Justin Bieber, Beyoncé and The Weeknd.

Calvin Harris, Frank Ocean and Migos team up on Slide, which is new at Number 10, giving Calvin his 22nd Top 10 and Frank and Migos their first.

Anne-Marie’s Ciao Adios breaks into the Top 20 for the first time, rising to 19, and Maroon 5 and Future rise 8 places to Number 24 with Cold.

Zedd and Alessia Cara complete this week’s round of new entries – Stay is brand new at 33.

See this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full