Justin Bieber’s ’Sorry’ breaks UK streaming record

Justin Bieber has become the first act to hit 100 million streams of a song in the UK, the Official Charts Company confirmed. His Sorry, the second of three #1 singles from his Purpose album, has remained in the UK chart in the 33 weeks since its release. It was two weeks at the top last October. 

Co-written by the Canadian 22-year old, with Skrillex and Blood on production duties, the pop anthem attained its digital milestone based on audio streams from chart-reporting services including Spotify, Google Play, Deezer, Apple Music, Tidal, and Napster.

Bieber is currently denying claims by Casey Dienel (White Hinderland) it used a sample from her song Ring The Bell.

Official Charts Company Chief Executive Martin Talbot commented, “It has been an extraordinary few months for Justin Bieber and this new streaming landmark really tops the lot. For Sorry to become the first track in Official Chart history to pass the 100 million mark is a record which can never be taken away from Justin – it is, perhaps, the four-minute mile of music streaming. A remarkable feat, a first which will be Justin’s record forever.”

This is not the sole Bieber record-breaking achievements in the UK. Earlier this year, he became the first recipient of the Official Chart Record Breaker Award earlier to mark his achievement of holding positions Number 1, 2, and 3 simultaneously on the Official Singles Chart, with Love Yourself, Sorry and What Do You Mean?.

Both What Do You Mean? and Love Yourself are also a whisker away from the 100 million streams milestone on 98.6 and 94.3 million streams. They are expected to cross the line in the coming weeks.

The Purpose album was also a streaming phenomenon in the UK: of its 982,340 UK copies, 241,837 were streaming ‘sales’.

In the US, Sorry had the most consecutive weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 since its debut. Purpose was third best selling album in the US last year with 1.7 million sales. Earlier, analysts had predicted that his bad behaviour would lead to a commercial backlash.

Bieber holds on to fans in Australia too. Earlier this month, Love Yourself picked up its sixth platinum after seven weeks at top spot on the ARIA chart.