The top 10 best-selling singles of 2022 have made UK pop charts history - why?

British artists have made history as they dominate the top 10 singles of 2022 for the first time since the music industry began publishing end-of-year sales charts more than 50 years ago.

Harry Styles leads the pack with his smash hit As It Was, which spent 10 consecutive weeks at number one on the Official Singles Chart and was the only track to surpass 180 million streams during 2022, according to analysis of Official Charts data by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran followed behind, with his track Bad Habits coming in second, while his collaboration with Nigerian singer Fireboy DML, called Peru, came third.

South London singer Cat Burns placed fourth with her song Go, which went viral on TikTok, Sheeran’s Shivers came fifth and Kate Bush‘s 1985 single Running Up That Hill, which enjoyed renewed popularity last year after featuring in the Netflix show Stranger Things, took sixth.

Oxford-based Glass Animals’ sleeper hit Heat Waves was seventh, and former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Calum Scott’s collaboration with Belgian artist Lost Frequencies on Where Are You Now finished eighth.

Scottish production duo LF System placed ninth with their track Afraid To Feel, and North Shields singer Sam Fender rounds off the top 10 with his Ivor Novello-winning song Seventeen Going Under.

The list was based on combined streaming and sales activity throughout 2022.

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Pop megastar Styles was also behind 2022’s top album with his Grammy and Mercury shortlisted Harry’s House.

This makes him the first artist to have the year’s top single and album since Lewis Capaldi in 2019 with Someone You Loved and Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent respectively.

Sheeran’s fifth studio album = (Equals) also ranked number two for a second consecutive year, while Taylor Swift’s latest release Midnights was 2022’s third-biggest album.

This success by British artists comes as UK recorded music consumption increased for the eighth consecutive year in 2022, with annual audio streaming figures breaking through the 150 billion mark for the first time in the UK, according to BPI.

Global success

YolanDa Brown, musician and chairwoman of the BPI said: “It’s wonderful to see so many exciting new artists breaking through to thrive alongside more established UK artists – leading the next wave of British talent to global success thanks to the compelling mix of their creativity and artistry, the ever expanding opportunities afforded by streaming and the support of their record labels.”

Leon Neville, BPI’s director of research and insight, added: “This outstanding achievement is a testament to the rich music talent that continues to emerge from across the UK’s nations and regions, fuelled by the passion, investment and skills of UK record labels.”

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