Taylor Swift has achieved the UK’s biggest vinyl album of 2024 with her 11th studio release, The Tortured Poets Department, selling 112,000 vinyl units, the highest yearly figure this century. This accomplishment marks Taylor’s third consecutive year leading the year-end vinyl album charts, following her 2023 success with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and 2022 with Midnights. The album initially debuted at Number 1 with 270,000 overall chart units, including 66,000 vinyl sales, setting the record as the UK’s fastest-selling vinyl album of the millennium. The release of an expanded Anthology edition in December contributed to the album’s additional two-week reign at the top of the Official Albums Chart, amassing a total of 10 weeks as Number 1. This achievement makes The Tortured Poets Department the longest-reigning Number 1 album of the 2020s and the most weeks at the top for an international female artist since 1999. Taylor Swift also secured five more entries in the Top 40 with 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at 20, Lover at 29, Folklore at 30, Evermore at 36, and Midnights at 38.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) reported another record-breaking year for vinyl sales, with 6.7 million albums sold in the UK over the past year, marking a 9.1% increase from 2023’s 6.1 million. This growth represents the 17th consecutive year of increasing vinyl sales, with 2024 reaching the highest sales total in three decades. Additionally, sales of physical albums across all formats rose to 17.4 million, marking the first year-on-year increase since 1994.
Oasis’s Definitely Maybe takes the second spot with the biggest vinyl reissue of 2024, coinciding with their announced 2025 live comeback and the 30th anniversary of their debut album. The vinyl reissue propelled the album back to Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart in September, selling 50,500 vinyl units in 2024. Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess ranks third, achieving 43,600 vinyl sales in 2024. Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet follows in fourth place with 42,900 sales, and Fontaines D.C.’s Romance rounds out the Top 5 with 42,100 sales.
The Cure’s Songs Of A Lost World is the biggest new British vinyl release of 2024, ranking eighth on the list. Completing the Top 10 are Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft at sixth, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours at seventh, Coldplay’s Moon Music at ninth, and Charli XCX’s BRAT at tenth, which is the best-selling vinyl album by a British solo artist in 2024.
Other notable entries in the Top 20 include Prelude To Ecstasy by The Last Dinner Party at 12, Liam Gallagher & John Squire’s self-titled album at 14, Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism at 15, and Tangk by IDLES at 18. Popular heritage releases featured in the Top 40 are Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon at 11, Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black at 13, Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? at 17, and Arctic Monkeys’ AM at 19.
