Ed Sheeran's 'Divide' is by far the World's best-selling Album of 2017 with 9.636 million equivalent sales by December 31, 2017, more than twice as much as the runner-up, Kendrick Lamar's 'Damn'! 'Divide' is Ed's third studio album, released on 3 March 2017 through Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. "Castle on the Hill" and "Shape of You" were released as the album's lead singles on 6 January 2017. The album debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, selling 672,000 units in its first week, making it the fastest-selling album by a male artist there and the third-highest opening behind Adele's '25' and Oasis' 'Be Here Now'. It topped the UK Albums Chart for a total of 7 non-consecutive weeks in 2017, the longest amount of time since Adele's 21 held the summit in 2011 and 2012. 'Divide' was the UK's highest selling album of the year with over 2,128,000 copies sold by the end of 2017.
'Divide' debuted at N°1 on the US Billboard 200 with 451,000 album-equivalent units, of which 322,000 were pure album sales. The tracks collectively achieved 134.6 million streams in the United States in the album's first week of availability. Ten songs from the album also debuted on the Hot 100 the same week, joining the three songs already on the chart, including "Shape of You" in its seventh week at N°1. In its second week, it stayed on top of Billboard 200 with 180,000 units (87,000 copies sold), which qualified it for a Gold certification from the RIAA on 22 March 2017. By July 2017, tracks from the album had accumulated over one billion audio streams in the US. As of December 2017, 'Divide' has sold 1,102,000 copies in the US, and was the year's second album to pass that mark after Taylor Swift's 'Reputation'.
Worldwide, outside the US and UK, the Album went to N°1 in 23 other countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. On the day of its release, the tracks of the album achieved a total of 56.73 million streams on Spotify in a single day, breaking the previous record of 29 million for Starboy by The Weeknd in November 2016.
In Ireland, 'Divide' opened at N°1, with all three of Sheeran's albums in the top five. Furthermore, the entire top 16 of the Irish Singles Chart consisted only of songs from the album. In Australia, the album opened at N°1 with a double Platinum certification in its first week, selling 97,014 copies. Sheeran also achieved a record for having 18 songs in the Australian top 40 in the same week—16 from the album and two from Sheeran's other albums, which were also in the top five of the albums chart. It has since held the nation's summit a total of 21 non-consecutive weeks, the ninth longest total time spent there. 'Divide' was Australia's highest selling album of 2017 with more than 420,000 copies sold throughout the year.
'Divide' debuted at N°2 in France, selling 40,900 copies. After five months of availability, it was certified three-times platinum there, after selling 300,000 units (sales and streaming). As of December 2017, it exceeds 334,000 sales in France. By the end of 2017, 387,000 units (physical and downloads) had been sold in France according to Pure Charts. It was ranked second on the year-end album sales chart.
