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As It Was also leads the pack as the most-streamed song of the year, totalling over 180.9 million audio and video streams, and best-selling song physically and digitally with 65,000 copies sold. It also means Harry Styles lands the end-of-year chart double too, as Harry’s House is crowned the UK biggest album of 2022.
MORE: The Official Top 40 biggest albums of 2022
Harry leads an all-British takeover of the Top 10 biggest tracks of the year in the UK, marking the first time ever that all ten of the year’s most successful singles were released by, or featured, British artists – including Harry, Cat Burns, Scottish DJs LF SYSTEM, Sam Fender, Glass Animals and Kate Bush. It’s the first time such a clean sweep for British music has happened since the music industry began publishing year-end sales charts more than 50 years ago.
See where Harry Styles’ songs and albums charted.
2022 also continued the growth of streaming as the dominant way UK music fans consume their favourite songs and artists. The BPI calculates that more than 3 billion audio streams were generated on average every week in 2022, compared to around 1.3 billion each week five years earlier.
The UK’s audio streaming market has grown to meet this demand – more doubling from 68.1 billion to 159.3 billion audio streams and was last year over 40 times bigger than in 2012 (3.7bn audio streams). It now takes, on average, 1.3 million audio streams to break into the Official Singles Chart Top 40 and a combined 7 million audio and video streams to land a UK Number 1 single.
In second place is Ed Sheeran with 2021’s biggest song, Bad Habits, which gobbled up 1.18 million chart units throughout 2022, proving Ed’s reach is just as dynamic and powerful as ever. This year also saw Ed break a major Official Charts record – becoming the first artist ever to have four albums chart inside the Official Albums Chart Top 10 for a year or more.
Rounding out the Top 5 we have Ed once again, this time teaming up with Afrobeats superstar Fireboy DML on Peru (3), breakout BRITs Rising Star nominee Cat Burns with her Number 2-peaking single Go (4), and Ed’s third entry, the scintillating former Number 1 single Shivers (5).
2022 also saw the year of an extraordinary renaissance for one of Britain’s greatest pop stars. Kate Bush reaped the rewards of an intelligently placed sync of her 1985 single Running Up That Hill (6) in the fourth season of Netflix’s landmark series Stranger Things. The song resonated with a new generation, enabling it to (finally) reach Number 1 in the UK, 35 years after its initial release, breaking a trio of Official Charts records in the process.
The extraordinary story of Running Up That Hill’s renaissance and UK chart history
Also earning a place in the 2022 Top 10, we have Glass Animals’ TikTok anthem Heat Waves (7), Lost Frequencies and Calum Scott’s slow-burning hit Where Are You Now (8), LF SYSTEM’s breakout Number 1 Afraid To Feel (9) and Sam Fender’s first UK Top 10 single, Seventeen Going Under (10).
The cast of Encanto score two of the Top 40, with their record-breaking Number 1 smash We Don’t Talk About Bruno landing at Number 11, and Surface Pressure finishing at Number 39.
More 2022 chart-toppers to make the year-end list include Starlight by Dave (14), abcdefu by Gayle (17), Unholy by Sam Smith & Kim Petras (31), and Forget Me by Lewis Capaldi (40).
2022’s fastest-selling singles
As It Was also lays claim to another title this year – that of 2022’s biggest first week for a single in the UK. In its opening seven days, As It Was pushed past 94,000 chart units, more than any other track this year.
As for the fastest-seller in its first week based on pure sales, that honour goes to LadBaby’s record-breaking Official Christmas Number 1, Food Aid. The charity track totalled over 59,000 first-week copies, becoming the most-downloaded song of the year in the process too.
Breakout hits
Despite releasing her single Go originally in 2020, it was two years later that Cat Burns experienced the most extraordinary breakout year with the track peaking at Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart, and Cat getting nominated for the BRITs Rising Star Award and placing fourth on the BBC’s Sound Of…2023 poll.
Dance music was also back in a big way this year, spearheaded by two rising UK acts who scored their first UK Number 1 singles; LF SYSTEM’s Afraid To Feel (9) and Eliza Rose & Interplanetary Criminal’s B.O.T.A (Baddest Of Them All) (24) rank as two of the greatest successes of the year.
Other major dance releases include Irish duo Belters Only’s Make Me Feel Good ft. Jazzy (12), Where Did You Go by Jax Jons ft. MNEK (16), Australian DJ Luude’s hit Down Under with Colin Hay (23), and I’m Good (Blue) by David Guetta & Bebe Rexha (25) which spent a week at Number 1, netting Bebe her first chart-topper in the UK.
MORE: Official Charts’ Artists To Watch for 2023
Official Top 40 biggest songs of 2022
POS TITLE ARTIST PEAK 1 AS IT WAS HARRY STYLES 1 2 BAD HABITS ED SHEERAN 1 3 PERU FIREBOY DML & ED SHEERAN 2 4 GO CAT BURNS 2 5 SHIVERS ED SHEERAN 1 6 RUNNING UP THAT HILL KATE BUSH 1 7 HEAT WAVES GLASS ANIMALS 5 8 WHERE ARE YOU NOW LOST FREQUENCIES/CALUM SCOTT 3 9 AFRAID TO FEEL LF SYSTEM 1 10 SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER SAM FENDER 3 11 WE DON’T TALK ABOUT BRUNO GAITAN/CASTILLO/ADASSA/FELIZ 1 12 MAKE ME FEEL GOOD BELTERS ONLY FT JAZZY 4 13 COLD HEART ELTON JOHN & DUA LIPA 1 14 STARLIGHT DAVE 1 15 GREEN GREEN GRASS GEORGE EZRA 3 16 WHERE DID YOU GO JAX JONES FT MNEK 7 17 ABCDEFU GAYLE 1 18 BABY AITCH/ASHANTI 2 19 ABOUT DAMN TIME LIZZO 3 20 I AIN’T WORRIED ONEREPUBLIC 3 21 CRAZY WHAT LOVE CAN DO DAVID GUETTA/HILL/HENDERSON 5 22 EASY ON ME ADELE 1 23 DOWN UNDER LUUDE FT COLIN HAY 5 24 B.O.T.A. (BADDEST OF THEM ALL) ELIZA ROSE/INTERPLANETARY 1 25 I’M GOOD (BLUE) DAVID GUETTA & BEBE REXHA 1 26 LAST LAST BURNA BOY 4 27 ANOTHER LOVE TOM ODELL 10 28 FIRST CLASS JACK HARLOW 2 29 MR BRIGHTSIDE KILLERS 10 30 STAY KID LAROI & JUSTIN BIEBER 2 31 UNHOLY SAM SMITH & KIM PETRAS 1 32 LATE NIGHT TALKING HARRY STYLES 2 33 OVERSEAS D-BLOCK EUROPE FT CENTRAL CEE 6 34 BAM BAM CAMILA CABELLO FT ED SHEERAN 7 35 LAST CHRISTMAS WHAM 1 36 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU MARIAH CAREY 1 37 SAVE YOUR TEARS THE WEEKND 2 38 BREAK MY SOUL BEYONCE 2 39 SURFACE PRESSURE JESSICA DARROW 3 40 FORGET ME LEWIS CAPALDI 1
©2023 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.Compiled using physical and digital sales combined with streaming figures.
Official Top 40 most-streamed songs of 2022
POS TITLE ARTIST 1 AS IT WAS HARRY STYLES 2 BAD HABITS ED SHEERAN 3 GO CAT BURNS 4 PERU FIREBOY DML & ED SHEERAN 5 HEAT WAVES GLASS ANIMALS 6 SHIVERS ED SHEERAN 7 WE DON’T TALK ABOUT BRUNO GAITAN/CASTILLO/ADASSA/FELIZ 8 RUNNING UP THAT HILL KATE BUSH 9 WHERE ARE YOU NOW LOST FREQUENCIES/CALUM SCOTT 10 MAKE ME FEEL GOOD BELTERS ONLY FT JAZZY 11 STARLIGHT DAVE 12 AFRAID TO FEEL LF SYSTEM 13 SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER SAM FENDER 14 COLD HEART ELTON JOHN & DUA LIPA 15 EASY ON ME ADELE 16 OVERSEAS D-BLOCK EUROPE FT CENTRAL CEE 17 BABY AITCH/ASHANTI 18 GREEN GREEN GRASS GEORGE EZRA 19 ABCDEFU GAYLE 20 ANOTHER LOVE TOM ODELL 21 LAST LAST BURNA BOY 22 I AIN’T WORRIED ONEREPUBLIC 23 ABOUT DAMN TIME LIZZO 24 WHERE DID YOU GO JAX JONES FT MNEK 25 DOWN UNDER LUUDE FT COLIN HAY 26 STAY KID LAROI & JUSTIN BIEBER 27 CRAZY WHAT LOVE CAN DO DAVID GUETTA/HILL/HENDERSON 28 SURFACE PRESSURE JESSICA DARROW 29 B.O.T.A. (BADDEST OF THEM ALL) ELIZA ROSE/INTERPLANETARY 30 BMW BAD BOY CHILLER CREW 31 MR BRIGHTSIDE KILLERS 32 SAVE YOUR TEARS WEEKND 33 FIRST CLASS JACK HARLOW 34 I’M GOOD (BLUE) DAVID GUETTA & BEBE REXHA 35 LAST CHRISTMAS WHAM 36 ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU MARIAH CAREY 37 UNHOLY SAM SMITH & KIM PETRAS 38 BAM BAM CAMILA CABELLO FT ED SHEERAN 39 LATE NIGHT TALKING HARRY STYLES 40 UNDER THE INFLUENCE CHRIS BROWN
©2023 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.Compiled using audio and video streams.
Official Top 40 best-selling songs of 2022
POS TITLE ARTIST 1 AS IT WAS HARRY STYLES 2 FOOD AID LADBABY 3 SPACE MAN SAM RYDER 4 GREEN GREEN GRASS GEORGE EZRA 5 I’M GOOD (BLUE) DAVID GUETTA & BEBE REXHA 6 CHRISTMAS DRILLINGS SIDEMEN 7 RUNNING UP THAT HILL KATE BUSH 8 AFRAID TO FEEL LF SYSTEM 9 WHERE ARE YOU NOW LOST FREQUENCIES/CALUM SCOTT 10 FORGET ME LEWIS CAPALDI 11 F**K THE TORIES K**TS 12 THE JOKER AND THE QUEEN ED SHEERAN 13 CRAZY WHAT LOVE CAN DO DAVID GUETTA/HILL/HENDERSON 14 WHERE DID YOU GO JAX JONES FT MNEK 15 PERU FIREBOY DML & ED SHEERAN 16 ABOUT DAMN TIME LIZZO 17 CELESTIAL ED SHEERAN 18 COLD HEART ELTON JOHN & DUA LIPA 19 ANYONE FOR YOU GEORGE EZRA 20 MAKE ME FEEL GOOD BELTERS ONLY FT JAZZY 21 BAM BAM CAMILA CABELLO FT ED SHEERAN 22 HOLD MY HAND LADY GAGA 23 WE DON’T TALK ABOUT BRUNO GAITAN/CASTILLO/ADASSA/FELIZ 24 BREAK MY SOUL BEYONCE 25 SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER SAM FENDER 26 BAD HABITS ED SHEERAN 27 SHIVERS ED SHEERAN 28 I AIN’T WORRIED ONEREPUBLIC 29 UNHOLY SAM SMITH & KIM PETRAS 30 B.O.T.A. (BADDEST OF THEM ALL) ELIZA ROSE/INTERPLANETARY 31 LATE NIGHT TALKING HARRY STYLES 32 HOLD ME CLOSER ELTON JOHN & BRITNEY SPEARS 33 BIG ENERGY LATTO/MARIAH CAREY/DJ KHALED 34 ALL FOR YOU CIAN DUCROT 35 ABCDEFU GAYLE 36 UNSTOPPABLE SIA 37 NOT OVER YET KSI FT TOM GRENNAN 38 DOWN UNDER LUUDE FT COLIN HAY 39 GO CAT BURNS 40 KISS ME DERMOT KENNEDY
©2023 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved. Compiled using physical and digital download sales only.