[2] The chart is based on both physical and digital album sales,[3] as well as audio streaming,[4] and each week's new number one is first announced every Friday (previously Sunday) on The Official Chart on BBC Radio 1, which is currently hosted by Scott Mills.
[23] One Direction gained their fourth UK number-one album in 2015, followed by Robbie Williams and Olly Murs in 2016.
Eminem, Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey and Coldplay later scored their fourth chart-toppers of the decade as well.
Thirteen different record labels have spent five weeks or more at number one on the album chart so far during the 2010s.
Typically, this will refer to the album that was announced as number one on the Sunday before 25 December—when Christmas Day falls on a Sunday itself, the official number one is considered by the OCC to be the one announced on that day's chart.
Releasing four albums in the decade,
Ed Sheeran
spent a total of 41 weeks at number one, more than any other artist.
Adele
's 2015 album
25
sold 800,307 copies in its first week, becoming the fastest-selling album of all time in the UK. Her two albums released in the 2010s,
21
and
25
, were the two best-selling albums of the decade.
Little Mix
achieved their number-one with
Glory Days
, in 2016. It had the highest first-week UK album sales for a girl group since
Spiceworld
in 1997, and became the fastest-selling number-one album by a girl group since 2001, with
Survivor
by
Destiny's Child
.
[
13
]
It spent the most weeks at number one for a girl group album (5 weeks), since the
Spice Girls
spent 15 weeks at number one with
Spice
in 1996.
[
14
]
In November 2018, it set a new chart record for the most weeks spent inside the top 40 of the UK Albums chart for a girl group album.
[
15
]
.
Kylie Minogue
achieved her fifth number one in July 2010 with
Aphrodite
, making her the first act to achieve a number-one album in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. She subsequently achieved her sixth number one in April 2018 with
Golden
and seventh number one in June 2019 with
Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection
.
Christina Aguilera
's sixth album,
Bionic
, made UK chart history in June 2010 by registering the largest drop in chart positions for a number-one album at the time, when it fell 28 places to number 29.
[
16
]
Selling 24,000 copies, it became the lowest selling number-one album in eight years.
[
16
]
In September 2018,
Eminem
broke the UK chart record for the most consecutive number-one albums, with nine, after his album "
Kamikaze
" topped the chart. He had previously scored number ones earlier in the decade with "
Recovery
", "
The Marshall Mathers LP 2
", and "
Revival
".
Take That
's sixth album
Progress
sold 520,000 copies in one week to become the second-fastest-selling album of all-time.
Emeli Sandé
reached number-one in February 2012 with her debut album,
Our Version of Events
—which spent a total of ten non-consecutive weeks at the summit; including one as the Christmas number-one.
Mumford & Sons
sold 158,923 copies of their second studio album
Babel
in one week in September 2012—the biggest first week sales of the year.
David Bowie
reached number-one in March 2013 with
The Next Day
, his 24th studio album and first release since 2003 (
Reality
); and then again in January 2016 with his final studio album
Blackstar
, which was released just two days before his death. After spending three weeks at the top,
Blackstar
was replaced by Bowie's 2002 greatest hits collection,
Best of Bowie
.
Justin Timberlake
attained the highest first week sales of the year in March 2013 (105,888 copies), when his third studio album—
The 20/20 Experience
—reached the summit.
Sam Smith
broke a record in March 2015 for the studio album by a male solo artist with the most non-consecutive runs at number one ever with
In the Lonely Hour
.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
by
the Beatles
saw a return to number-one after 50 years when the album was reissued in 2017, meaning that the Beatles have achieved a number-one album in five different decades.
In August 2017,
the Vamps
gained their first number one with
Night & Day
,
[
17
]
but the following week it dropped from number 1 to number 35, surpassing Christina Aguilera's record for the largest fall from the top spot.
[
18
]
The
soundtrack
to the 2017 film
The Greatest Showman
broke records when it spent 28 non-consecutive weeks at number one during 2018 and 2019, the most weeks spent at number one for an album that decade.
[
19
]