Following the release last Friday, 3rd March, of Ed Sheeran’s new album ÷ (‘Divide’), Spotify can now confirm that the album achieved the unprecedented feat of smashing the previous record for the BEST FIRST WEEK OF STREAMS FOR AN ALBUM in a little over FOUR DAYS.
The previous record was held by The Weeknd who saw 223m streams in 7 days upon the release of ‘Starboy’ last November. Ed Sheeran’s ‘Divide’ racked up over 218m streams in just 4 days, then smashed The Weeknd’s record within the early hours of Tuesday (7th March) – a little over 4 days. By the end of Tuesday, the album’s fifth day of release, ‘Divide’ had seen over 273m streams, and is on course for an immense final streaming number by the end of the week.
Comment from Spotify: “It’s fair to say that Ed Sheeran nearly broke Spotify this week.”
Shape of You is currently Global number 1 on Spotify, and Galway Girl is Global number 2. All 16 album tracks are in the Global Top 50.
The 16 tracks from the album ARE the Top 16 tracks on Spotify in the UK (screen shot attached), with ‘Galway Girl’ currently beating ‘Shape of You’ to number 1.
