"Shape Of You" is not only the best-selling SIngle of 2017 but has become one of the greatest hits of all time! On the All Time Global Chart only "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (1992) and "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John (1997) rank higher than "Shape Of You".
"Shape of You" was released as a digital download on 6 January 2017 as one of the double lead singles from his third studio album ÷ (2017), along with "Castle on the Hill". The song was the last song written for Sheeran's third album. "Shape of You" had originally been written with Rihanna in mind. As he had already written all the songs he wanted for the album, the song was therefore not intended to be included in the album. It was conceived as a duet between Rihanna and Rudimental. "['Shape of You'] is actually a really random one because I went in to write songs for other people with a guy called Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid, and we were writing this song and I was like 'this would really work for Rihanna,'" he explained. "And then I started singing lyrics like 'putting Van The Man on the jukebox' and I was like 'well she's not really going to sing that, is she?' And then we sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me."
"Shape of You" peaked at N°1 on the singles charts of 44 countries, including the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK, Australian and Canadian singles charts. It has stayed at number one for a record-tying 16 consecutive weeks on the Canadian Hot 100, as well as 14 non-consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and 12 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. On 21 September 2017 it became the most streamed song of all time on Spotify, with over 1.32 billion streams.
"Shape of You" debuted at N°1 on the UK Singles Chart on January 13, selling 227,000 combined units in its first week. The song was certified Silver in the first week due to selling 200,000 units and Gold in the second week selling 400,000 units. The song remained at N°1 in its second week, selling 139,000. It stayed at N°1 for 13 consecutive weeks on the UK Singles Chart, and a further week at the top after a week's interruption by Harry Styles' "Sign of the Times". In July 2017, the song reached 184 million in streams, making it the most-streamed song in the UK of all time! It was the nation's highest selling and most streamed track of 2017 with 787,000 copies sold and 248 million streams throughout the year!
The song debuted at N°1 on the Billboard Hot 100, selling 240,000 downloads and gaining 20 million streams in its debut week in the US, becoming Sheeran's first N°1 song in the country. Sheeran also became the first artist to debut two songs in the top 10 the same week in the history of the Hot 100, with "Castle on the Hill" also debuting at number six. "Shape of You" topped the Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks. "Shape of You" broke the 20-year-old record. As of August 2017, "Shape of You" is the best selling song of 2017 in the US with 2.3 million copies sold, the only one to sell over two million. It is also the most streamed song with 799.7 million combined audio and video streams. The song became the N°1 song of the year on Billboard Hot 100 in 2017.
The Song debuted at N°1 in France, and was later certified diamond there. According to Pure Charts, in the first half of the year 2017, the song reached 631,000 units (105,000 sales and 526,000 units from streams) and as of September 2017, it exceeds 812,109 units (707,109 from streams).
In Australia, the song stayed at No. 1 for 15 weeks, breaking a record set 22 years ago by Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise". In doing this, it also broke ABBA's record of fourteen weeks at number one, which was set on the previous Australian charts before the ARIA charts became Australia's official charts. "Shape of You" was also Australia's highest selling song of 2017 with 630,000 copies sold by the end of the year.
The song is the first ever N°1 single of the Philippine Hot 100 upon the chart's inception on 12 June 2017. It stayed at the top for 4 consecutive weeks before it was dethroned by "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber.
Worldwide, the song reached one billion streams on Spotify in June 2017. It became the most streamed song on Spotify in September 2017, reaching 1,318,420,396 streams overtaking Drake's "One Dance".
