Ed Sheeran secures fastest-selling album of 2023 so far

Ed Sheeran has beaten Lana Del Rey’s record to secure the UK’s fastest-selling album of 2023 so far, the Official Charts Company has said.

The album – (Subtract) is on the way to earning the 32-year-old pop superstar a sixth consecutive number one album at the midweek mark, securing more than 56,000 chart units, which is more than any other album released this year, it was announced on Tuesday.

The previous record was held by American singer Del Rey’s album Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd which scored 41,000 chart units in total during its first week.

Subtract is set to follow the success of Sheeran’s other albums Plus, Multiply, Divide, No 6 Collaborations Project and Equals – which featured number one singles Bad Habits and Shivers.

The newest album comes after his UK number one single Eyes Closed, which was released alongside a four-part Disney+ documentary The Sum Of It All, which marks the end of his decade-long mathematics era.

The chart-topping singer wrote and recorded the 14-track offering after a series of difficult events impacted his life last year, including his wife Cherry Seaborn being diagnosed with a tumour while pregnant and the death of his close friend Jamal Edwards.

During the same time period, Sheeran won a high court battle after two songwriters claimed his 2017 hit Shape Of You infringed copyright of their song Oh Why, later speaking openly about the mental strain the case caused him.

The new album was also released after Sheeran won a US copyright lawsuit which alleged he used parts of Marvin Gaye’s hit song Let’s Get It On for his own track, Thinking Out Loud.