Ed Sheeran continues to storm global streaming charts

Ed Sheeran made streaming history earlier in the month when he simultaneously dropped two singles, Shape Of You and Castle On The Hill.

They smashed Spotify’s Day 1 streaming record with a joint total of 13 million global streams in the first 24 hours. The figure rose to 23.36 million in 48 hours, working out to half a million plays every hour.

The two tracks, especially the more pop-oriented Shape Of You, continue to storm the global streaming charts. Shape of You moved 51 million streams in the past week, almost doubling The Chainsmokers’ Paris which was at #2 with 28.1 million streams. Castle was in third place.

In the UK, the two singles continue to occupy the first and second spot for a third week. According to the Official Charts Company, Shape generated 56,000 more downloads and 9.57 million streams while Castle amassed 46,000 more downloads and was streamed a further 6.6 million times.

In the US Spotify streaming charts, Shape is at #2 with 20,000 plays behind hip-hop trio Migos’ Bad, while Castle is at #14.

Locally in Australia, both singles were at #1 and #2 on the ARIA singles, downloads and streaming charts, while both tracks have been certified gold for sales of 35,000 each.

According to chart historian Gavin Ryan in Noise 11, the 25-year-old this week brought his total weeks on top of the ARIA charts to nine, tying with Taylor Swift and Eminem at 11th spot. If Sheeran holds on another week, Ryan says, he’ll tie with Bruno Mars at 10 weeks.

Sheeran admitted to GQ magazine he’s got his eyes set on overtaking Adele’s phenomenal achievements.

"Adele is the one person who’s sold more records than me in the past 10 years. She’s the only person I need to sell more records than.

"That’s a big f*****g feat because her last album sold 20 million. But if I don’t set her as the benchmark then I’m selling myself short.

“I’m not in competition [creatively] because we all sit in our own lanes, but once the creative product is out, there is a race to the finish line."

The dark cloud for Sheeran is that British radio and social media posts claim that Shape is similar to Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song Mountain O’ Things as well as Sia’s Cheap Thrills.

High profile radio presenter Chris Evans, who hosts The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on the BBC, who also pointed out the resemblance on air to the Chapman song, emphasised there is nothing more serious than that.

"It doesn’t mean anything, it’s not an accusation of any type," he said.

Last June, Sheeran was sued for $20 million by Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, writers of 2010 X Factor UK winner Matt Cardle’s song Amazing, over alleged similarities with his 2014 track Photograph.

Two months later, heirs of the co-writer of Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, Edward Benjamin, took action, claiming a resemblance to Thinking Out Loud. Neither case has been taken to court.