23 December 2021
Newsdesk
Today, “Shape of You,” the lead single for Ed Sheeran’s third studio album, ÷ (Divide), became the first song ever to reach 3 Billion streams on Spotify. The milestone is a huge achievement as Ed Sheeran is the only artist in Spotify history to have a song surpass this number of streams.
This isn't Ed’s first milestone however, as several of his hits have recently crossed the 1 Billion streams mark including “Happier” and “Galway Girl,” earning their spots on Spotify’s Billions Club playlist.
You can watch a video from Ed via our Spotify Instagram.
In the video, Ed shares that he couldn’t be more “chuffed” about the news, calling it, “absolutely insane,” before discussing the origin of the song. “ [‘Shape Of You’] Wasn't really meant to make the album,” he says, “but when I finished making the song, Ben Cook, from my label, said it had to be a single – but I wanted ‘Castle on the Hill’ to be the single. We put both songs out at once and…I was wrong. Here we are with ‘Shape of You’ at 3 Billion.”
Earlier this year, Ed Sheeran dropped his fourth studio album, = (EQUALS), which took the #1 spot on the Spotify Top 10 Album Debuts charts both globally and in the U.S. In celebration of the release, Spotify hosted a traditional English Sunday Roast for Ed’s top fans with a special acoustic set from the singer-songwriter in addition to creating Experience EQUALS, a new mobile-only format that enabled fans to connect with the album through exclusive content, personal videos and more!
