What was the last song to top the UK chart before streaming was incorporated?

Posted On September 30, 2025September 30, 2025

When we talk about ‘pop music’, what we’re really referring to is ‘music that is popular’.

There’s never really been a true definition of what pop music is in terms of how it sounds, but as long as it is marketable to a widespread audience, then there’s little else that needs to be taken into account when trying to establish what makes ‘pop music’ popular.

But the thing is, the way we measure popularity has changed over time, and what was once popular, or at least a marker of popularity, during the early years of the charts, has changed significantly over time. We’ve developed from a time where the sale of 7” singles was the main currency of popularity, through to an age where the compact disc attempted to usurp the supposedly outdated format as the main way we celebrated new single releases, and now, we’re in a world where neither is focused upon as the main show of support for an artist.

Streaming would take off as a major way of consuming music in the mid-2000s, and along with the advent of digital downloads, we found ourselves entering a new era where technology was rapidly advancing and needed to be reflected in chart success. Gnarls Barkley, the neo-soul duo consisting of rapper and vocalist Cee Lo Green and producer Danger Mouse, were the first to have a single reach the top of the UK charts based on download sales alone, but this was as far back as 2006, when the likes of Spotify weren’t even in existence.

When it finally entered a worldwide market in 2009, its initial impact was staggering, and the number of artists who began using it as a means of increasing the availability of their music saw streaming figures reach stratospheric numbers when compared to record sales. It was only a matter of time before this began to be incorporated into the figures that were used to calculate the best-selling single of any given week, and in 2014, the first song to reach number one in the UK with the inclusion of streaming figures in sales would be anointed. But who was the last to achieve this spot based on actual sales?

What was the last song to reach number one before streaming?

It’s important to note that sales figures haven’t been completely decimated by the advent of streaming, but they account for significantly less than streaming numbers do. However, in order to balance out the statistics, 100 streams have to be achieved in a given country for it to be classified as the equivalent of one sale, so that there is no need for a streaming chart to exist as a separate thing to the physical sales chart.

Given that, the final song to reach number one in the UK happened on July 5th, 2014, and was awarded to Dutch DJ and producer, Oliver Heldens. With his song, ‘Gecko (Overdrive)’, which was released as a collaboration with British vocalist Becky Hill, he managed to achieve the top spot in the charts based on physical sales, selling 79,000 units in its first week.

The song, which was a rework of an instrumental house track by Heldens simply titled ‘Gecko’, had been released earlier the same year, but it was the remix that achieved greater success, especially in the UK, due in part to the inclusion of Hill on the track. However, 79,000 isn’t exactly the most impressive figure to have achieved, and considering that it has now been certified 3x platinum in the UK with over 1.8 million sales (including streams at 100 = 1 sale rate), this first week figure is slim considering it has now accrued almost 400 million plays on Spotify.

While streaming figures would be included from the following week, dethroning ‘Gecko (Overdrive)’ after just one week and replacing the track with Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalea’s ‘Problem’, the UK charts has since seen many unusual statistics in the charts, with the record for the longest time spent at number one by a single song being surpassed, and the amount of songs by one artist to reach the Top 10 at the same time also being broken.

With physical sales constantly on the decline, especially when looking at single releases, there was little to no point in choosing not to factor in streaming figures, but it has dramatically altered the chart landscape, with pop ultimately being more ‘pop’ than ever before.

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