Most simultaneous UK Top 20 singles

On the Official Singles Chart dated 16 March 2017, singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran (UK) had 16 tracks in the Top 20. They were: "Shape of You" (No.1 for a ninth consecutive week); "Galway Girl" (No.2 – new entry); "Castle on the Hill" (No.3 – non-mover); "Perfect" (No.4 – new entry); "New Man" (No.5 – new entry); "Happier" (No.6 – new entry); "Dive" (No.8 – new entry); "Supermarket Flowers" (No.9 – new entry); "What Do I Know?" (No.10 – new entry); "How Would You Feel (Paean)" (No.11 – non-mover); "Barcelona" (No.12 – new entry); "Nancy Mulligan" (No.13 – new entry); "Eraser" (No.14 – new entry); "Hearts Don't Break Around Here" (No.15 – new entry); "Bibia Be Ye Ye" (No.18 – new entry); and "Save Myself" (No.19 – new entry). All 16 tracks feature on the deluxe edition of Sheeran's third studio album, ÷ ("Divide"), which debuted at No.1 on the Official Albums Chart on 16 March 2017 after selling 672,000 copies – the fastest-selling UK album by a male artist.

The previous UK record was five simultaneous Top 20 songs, shared by four acts: Ruby Murray (1955), Bill Haley and his Comets (1956), Elvis Presley (1957) and Michael Jackson (2009).

For the first time in UK chart history, one act occupied the whole of the Top 5. On 4 April 1964, The Beatles (UK) matched this feat on the Billboard Hot 100 when they had the entire Top 5 with "Can't Buy Me Love" (No.1), "Twist and Shout" (No.2), "She Loves You" (No.3), "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (No.4) and "Please Please Me" (No.5).

Sheeran smashed a number of Spotify records on the day ÷ was released (3 March 2017), including most first-day streams of an album (56,727,861, beating 29 million+ for The Weeknd's Starboy), most streams for an artist in 24 hours (68,695,172, beating The Weeknd's 40.3 million) and most streamed track in 24 hours (10 million+ for "Shape of You", beating the 7.24 million streams recorded by the same track on 9 January 2017).

All 16 tracks from the deluxe edition of ÷ crashed into Spotify's Global Top 50 streaming chart on 3 March, plus the Top 50 in 12 international markets (Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and the UK). In the UK and Ireland, the 16 tracks claimed the entire Top 16.

On 10 March 2017, the day Sheeran's UK chart domination was confirmed, all 16 songs were still in the Global Top 50, led by "Shape of You" (8,687,867 daily plays) at No.1 and "Galway Girl" (4,715,748 daily plays) at No.2, and he held 16 of the Top 17 positions on the UK Top 50 streaming chart, led by "Galway Girl" with 1,052,403 daily streams. On the same day (10 March), "Shape of You" was the most streamed track in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA, with "Galway Girl" at No.1 in Ireland (32 countries in total). Remarkably, "Shape of You" was in the Top 5 of all 52 global markets monitored by Spotify.

Before Sheeran's nine entries, Frankie Laine (UK) held the record for the most simultaneous hits in the UK Top 10. For three consecutive weeks (31 October to 14 November 1953), "Hey Joe!" (1-3-4), "Answer Me" (3-2-1), "Where the Winds Blow" (5-7-9) and the record-breaking "I Believe" (6-5-7) were all inside the Top 10.

Justin Bieber (Canada) previously held the record for the most simultaneous new Top 40 hits, with eight entries on 5 and 12 December 2015. On the chart dated 11 July 2009, Michael Jackson had 13 tracks in the Top 40 (five in the Top 20) following his death. All 13 were re-entries rather than new hits.

Sheeran also broke Calvin Harris' (UK) previous record for the most Top 10 tracks from one album. With seven new entries on 16 March 2017 adding to his existing Top 10 hits "Shape of You", "Castle on the Hill" and "How Would You Feel (Paean)", Sheeran achieved 10 Top 10s from the chart-topping ÷ – one more than Harris had from his album 18 Months.

On the Official Albums Chart for 16 March 2017, Sheeran became the sixth act – after Elvis Presley (1957), The George Mitchell Minstrels (1962), Michael Jackson (2009), David Bowie (2016) and Prince (2016) – and only the third living act to post three simultaneous Top 5 albums, with ÷ (No.1), x (No.4) and + (No.5).