Talk:List of best-selling singles in the United Kingdom

Sales vs Chart Sales

The OCC should be the most reliable source of sales details. They have 'chart sales' as used on The Official Singles Chart here (including streaming) and they have 'sales' in the Singles Sales Chart here.

We either need to have an extra column to put in 'chart sales' to differentiate or we continue to use 'sales' and record streaming separately as on the page I made List of most streamed songs in the United Kingdom. When the OCC announced yesterday that Clean Bandit had achieved 1M sales, it is 3 weeks after it was awarded double platinum for 1.2M 'chart sales'. here Note also its position at the bottom of the chart of million sellers (hence 1.00M). Btljs (talk) 19:05, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm inclined to agree with that. The OCC's most recent update puts "Happy" all the way down at number 50. Now, that's probably lower than what it should be and might be a mistake on their part, but, whether it's true or not, it's verifiable, so that's what Wikipedia need to reflect. If we start conflating disjointed sources (such as random articles in The Guardian), this list is going descend into a real mess. A Thousand Doors (talk | contribs) 20:14, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

They didn't update the order from June when the last batch of new million sellers were added, annoyingly. We'll just have to wait until something else sells a million to see what position things have moved to. IMO the OCC put out enough updates to be the only source necessary but unfortunately you get something like this which carelessly refers to 'sales' and there's no good argument to stop people using it to update the list. That's why we may need to add a 'streams' column at some point to avoid comparison problems. Btljs (talk) 21:11, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

It's also worth pointing out that although platinum is always referred to as 600K sales, it never could be relied upon because the record company can apply for a platinum award if they ship 600K out to shops. So if you look at "Candle 97" it was certified 9 X platinum = 5.4M but then sales recorded as 4.9M - that's nearly a whole platinum worth of returns! Btljs (talk) 21:28, 25 July 2014 (UTC)

You are correct Btljs, and related to that is the fact that some people may not realise the certification levels have not remained constant, having been changed in 1979 and 1989, so a platinum award in 1996 is not the same as one from 1986, either in sales or shipping terms. Richard3120 (talk) 14:26, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you was certified 5x Platinum by the BPI for selling 3million copies this needs to be added AT1099 17:53, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

Chart information out off date

If we're using the logic that only physical sales should be counted in this chart, Rather Be by Clean Bandit now needs to be included since it's been made official that it has verified sales of 1,500,000. Can anybody with more Wikipedia experience help me implement the changes? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.9.150.136 (talk) 19:21, 3 April 2015 (UTC)

Where is the reference to Rather Be selling this many? It had 1.13M at the end of 2014 and although selling steadily in the top 50 since then, that would only suggest maybe another 100K at most. I'm removing it unless someone has a source that supports this. Btljs (talk) 15:46, 11 May 2015 (UTC)

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-40-biggest-selling-singles-of-the-millennium-so-far-revealed__9816/ Pharrell Williams has officially taken over as the top selling single this millennium, it's now on 1.81 sales. That'll put him past Aqua into the number 13 all time spot but I don't know if somebody more talented wants to make the changes on here.81.170.126.75 (talk) 13:33, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you was certified 5x Platinum for selling 3million copies this needs to be added AT1099 17:52, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

Uptown Funk

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a667956/hot-damn-uptown-funk-is-the-5th-biggest-single-in-uk-history.html#~poazIrR5T6rf2U According to this source 'Uptown Funk' has sold over 2 milion copies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.36.13.247 (talk) 13:05, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Yup, and so has "Happy" - if you include streaming (see discussion above). The time is probably ripe to add in a column for "combined sales" as these are more and more commonly quoted in the press. So I'm going to do it. Btljs (talk) 18:52, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Put in a new table with the top 5 based on combined sales as that's all I can reference at the moment. Assumes minimal streaming for the existing top three which is probably true. Btljs (talk) 19:24, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Can we really assume that, though? I imagine that Bohemian Rhapsody has been streamed quite a bit over the last year, and DTKIC was probably streamed loads at Christmas. Personally, I'd rather that the list remain as it was when the OCC most recently updated it, as conflating different sources in this way would violate WP:SYNTHESIS. If and when the OCC publish a new list, we can update this article. A Thousand Doors (talk | contribs) 15:37, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

I agree in general, but we do have a reliable source (MusicWeek) which reports that Happy and Uptown Funk are 4 and 5. Above them the top three are so spread out that the order is unlikely ever to change. Until H or UF get 4XPlatinum they can't challenge Bohemian Rhapsody. I think it is worth noting the other 3XPlatinum songs but not compiling a full chart as that would be OR. If we get enough references to combined sales of other top 40 songs then we could, as I said before, add a column to the original table, but this seemed rather OTT for just two songs. My guess is that OCC will do a chart of the millennium, decade type thing soon which may help. Btljs (talk) 09:01, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

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Wonderwall

the Oasis track has Streaming/Download sales of 3,000,000 https://www.bpi.co.uk/brit-certified/

Add on physical sales that is 4.5m sales. Coachtripfan (talk) 14:44, 7 November 2020 (UTC)

Correction: total physical sales are 1.5m.

Total sales are 4m as the 3m "sales equivalent" sales include downloads.

I million physical sales from mid 90s. Coachtripfan (talk) 14:19, 8 November 2020 (UTC)

Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas

Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas is you was certified 5x Platinum for selling 3million copies this needs to be added AT1099 17:54, 25 December 2020 (UTC)

The combined sales list is only up to 2018, and I don't think there's been an updated list published since. Incidentally "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues would also be in the top 10 of a fully up to date all-time chart, as it recently went 4x platinum. MFlet1 (talk) 13:08, 9 January 2021 (UTC)

https://www.bpi.co.uk/award/11787-771-1 United Kingdom (BPI)[73] 6× Platinum 4,003,196[303]