He album sold 800,307 copies in its opening week and Maplestory2 Mesos, by the 29th day, the Someone Like You hitmaker had become the fastest artist ever to smash through the two million sales mark at that rate Welcome back: Adele kicked things off in October with the release of her comeback single
Hello - which was the sixth biggest-selling single of the year Sheeran released x in June 2014 but it shot to the top of the charts again in July 2015 ahead of his sold-out Wembley Stadium shows. It finished the year on 971,000 combined sales - with a grand total of 2.66 million to date across its lifetime.
The 24-year-old's debut album, +, also made the Top 40 four years on from its release - placing at 38.Smith's In The Lonely Hour notched up 893,000 combined sales in 2015, bringing it to 2.14 million in total. It hit number one on four occasions and also achieved a record-breaking 67 weeks in the Top 10.
Going strong: Ed Sheeran's x came in second place on the list of 2015's biggest-selling albums, despite the fact it was released in June 2014Elvis Presley came in fourth place, achieving posthumous success with his 2015 album If I Can Dream, an orchestral reworking of his biggest hits.Cilla Black's