Beatles’ ‘Sgt Pepper’s’ is Britain’s all-time favourite studio album

Over a half-century after its release, the Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band has been named the most popular British album of all time.

To mark the first ever National Album Day (October 13), The Official Charts Company revealed the UK’s biggest studio albums of all time.

The chart – which ranks albums by combining physical sales, downloads and streams in the UK – reflects album sales of 135 million across more than 60 years.

It is topped by an eclectic Top 5 which accounts for approaching 25 million sales on its own, reflecting the music from five different decades. Snapping at The Beatles’ toes are Adele’s 2011 album 21 in second place (5.11m), followed by 1995’s (What’s The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis (4.94m). In fourth place comes Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic Dark Side Of The Moon (4.47m), just ahead of Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller (4.47m).

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the only album from the Sixties to make the list, along with six albums from the Seventies, six from the Eighties and eight from the Nineties. The first decade of the new Millennium (2000s) claims most places, with 14 albums, while five albums from the current decade made the list.

The Top 20 list is:

1. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), British sales: 5.34 million
2. Adele: 21 (2011) 5.11 million
3. Oasis: What’s The Story Morning Glory (1995) 4.94 million
4. Pink Floyd: The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) 4.47 million
5. Michael Jackson: Thriller (1982) 4.47 million
6. Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms (1985) 4.34 million
7. Michael Jackson: Bad (1987) 4.14 million
8. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours (1977) 4.09 million
9. Amy Winehouse: Back To Black (2006) 3.93 million
10. Adele: 25 (2015) 3.50 million
11. Simply Red: Stars (1991) 3.45 million
12. Shania Twain: Come On Over (1997) 3.43 million
13. Ed Sheeran: X (2014) 3.38 million
14. Meat Loaf: Bat Out Of Hell (1977) 3.37 million
15. James Blunt: Back To Bedlam (2004) 3.36 million
16. Verve: Urban Hymns (1997) 3,34 million
17. Simon & Garfunkel: Bridge Over Troubled Waters (1970) 3.26 million
18. Leona Lewis: Spirit (2007) 3.17 million
19. Michael Buble: Crazy Love (2009) 3.13 million
20. Ed Sheeran: Divide (2017) 3.10 million