÷ (album)
÷ ("Divide") is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 3 March 2017 through Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. "Castle on the Hill" and "Shape of You" were released as the album's lead singles on 6 January 2017. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.[1][2] As of March 2024, the deluxe version of the album is the second most streamed album of all time on Spotify.[3]
÷
3 March 2017
Early 2015 – Late 2016
46:14
59:27 (deluxe)
The album was number one in the United Kingdom, selling 672,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling album by a male solo artist there and the highest opening behind Adele's 25 and Oasis' Be Here Now. "Divide" topped the charts in over 25 territories across the globe, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. In April 2018, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry named ÷ the best-selling album worldwide of the year.[4] In October 2019, it was ranked the fifth best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK.[5]
All the tracks on the album reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart in the week of the album's release. The dominance of its tracks on the UK chart led to calls for change on how the single chart is compiled,[6] and the Official Charts Company then introduced new rules limiting tracks eligible for entry in the top 100 to three per the main artist, as well as adjusting the streams-to-sales ratio for older songs.[7] His fourth single from ÷, "Perfect", reached number one in the US, Australia and the UK, where it became the Christmas number one of 2017.
To promote the album, Sheeran embarked on a worldwide concert tour, entitled the ÷ Tour. Comprising 260 shows, it started on 16 March 2017 and ended on 26 August 2019 with the last of four homecoming gigs in Ipswich, Suffolk. By August 2019, it had become the biggest, most attended, and highest-grossing tour of all time.[8]
Background[edit]
On 13 December 2015, Sheeran announced a self-imposed hiatus from social media, commenting that he found himself "seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes."[9] He further ensured that some of this time would be spent creating his third album, which he considered "the best thing I have made thus far." Exactly one year after this announcement, on 13 December 2016, Sheeran's various social media platforms posted pictures of a blank blue square to state his imminent return to music.[10] On 1 January 2017, Sheeran officially ended his hiatus by announcing that "new music" would be released on 6 January.[11] On 12 January 2017, Sheeran revealed the tracklist and the release date for the album with its pre-order.[12][13]
Release[edit]
÷ was released on 3 March 2017 through Asylum Records.[14]
Worldwide, on the day of its release, the tracks of the album achieved a total of 56.73 million streams on Spotify in a single day, breaking the previous record of 29 million for Starboy by the Weeknd in November 2016. In total, all tracks by Sheeran were streamed 68.7 million times that day, with the single "Shape of You" receiving 10.12 million streams, both also breaking previous records on Spotify.[15] Both records were broken by Drake's More Life 16 days later.[16] By its second day of release, the videos of songs from the album had achieved a cumulative one billion views on YouTube, including figures from "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill" released earlier.[17]
Commercial performance[edit]
United Kingdom[edit]
The album sold 232,000 physical and digital copies in the UK on its first day of release without the inclusion of streaming data, more than the sales of Sheeran's previous album x in its first week.[44] In its three days, the album continued to increase in sales and sold over 432,000 copies, thereby topping the UK Albums Chart with just three days of availability. The album sold 63% in physical format, 31% in digital, and 6% in streaming equivalent sales.[45] The album sold a total of 672,000 copies in the UK during its first week, making it the nation's fastest-selling album by a male artist and the third highest opening overall behind Adele's 25 (which sold 800,307 copies in its first week) and Oasis' Be Here Now (which sold 696,000 copies in its first week).[46] In ÷'s opening week, Sheeran had his first three albums chart in the top five in the UK. Additionally, it broke the record for the most top 10 songs from a single album on the UK Singles Chart (with nine songs in the top 10 in a single week as well), surpassing a record previously held by Calvin Harris. All 16 songs from the album also entered the top 20.[47][48] The album reached one million sales in the UK after just 16 days.[49] In the first half of 2017, the album pushed UK music sales up by 11.2% compared to previous year, and it was the best-selling entertainment product of year, ahead of film releases such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.[50] By July 2017, the album had sold over 2 million units in the UK—1.22 million of these from physical sales and 371,000 copies from downloads, with streaming contributing 415,000 equivalent units.[51] It has since topped the UK Albums Chart for a total of 20 non-consecutive weeks, the longest amount of time since Adele's 21 held the summit in 2011 and 2012.[52][53] ÷ was the nation's highest selling album of the year with over 2,128,000 copies sold by the end of 2017.[54]
Notes