Coldplay’s Moon Music becomes fastest-selling album of a British act in 2024

Moon Music by Coldplay has become the fastest-selling album of any British act in 2024 so far, according to the Official Charts Company.

The record has shifted over 160,000 chart units in 72 hours and is on track to earn the biggest week for a UK artist in the chart since Adele’s 30 debuted at number one with 261,000 chart units in 2021.

It is also in pole position to steal the number one spot, meaning the band, comprised of Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland and Will Champion, will earn their 10th consecutive number one album.

Glastonbury Festival 2024
The crowd watching Coldplay performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival (Yui Mok/PA)

Since the release of their debut number-one record, Parachutes, in 2000, the band has had a streak of chart-topping studio albums with A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002), X&Y (2005) Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends (2008), Mylo Xyloto (2011) and Ghost Stories (2014).

They also had chart success with A Head Full Of Dreams (2015), Everyday Life (2019) and Music Of The Spheres (2021).

At the moment, US pop star Taylor Swift holds onto the record for the fastest-selling album of 2024 so far, with her 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department which raked in 270,000 chart units in its first week.

Coldplay were recently named the most played British group of the 21st century by music licensing company PPL.

This year the pop/rock group headlined Glastonbury Festival on the Saturday night where they were joined by artists including Little Simz and Nigerian music legend Femi Kuti, as well as Back To The Future star Michael J Fox.

They will make history next year when they become the first music act to play 10 nights at London’s Wembley Stadium in a single tour, breaking a record jointly held by Swift and Take That.

Frontman Martin, 47, recently confirmed on the Zane Lowe Show for Apple Music 1 that the band will only make 12 studio albums.

“If we do something together after that, creatively, beyond touring, then it will be something different, or it’ll be a side thing, or it’ll be a compilation of things we hadn’t finished,” he said.

Elsewhere in the UK albums chart, The Last Flight by musical group Public Service Broadcasting is set for the number two spot while Cutouts by English rock band The Smile is headed for number three.

The rest of the top five will likely be comprised of Sabrina Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet and Changes All The Time by singer James Bay.