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Coldplay’s Official Top 20 biggest songs on the UK's Official Chart
05 May 2021 | By Rob Copsey

It's just over 20 years since Coldplay's first Official Chart hit – Shiver, back in March 2000 – and the band are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

The band return with their new single Higher Power this week, which sees them team up with mega hitmaker Max Martin for the first time.

The track is their first in two years, since 2019's Everyday Life, which became their eighth Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart. But Coldplay aren't just an albums act – they're still managing to rack up hit singles.

To date they’ve scored 24 Top 40 hits, including 18 Top 10s in the process, two of which were chart-toppers. But which of their big ones come out on top when sales and streams are combined?

To mark Coldplay's return, we crunched the numbers and now count down their biggest songs in the UK, based on physical and digital sales, and streams. Before the full Top 20, a few highlights:

Yellow (2000)
Official Chart peak: 4
UK Chart sales: 1.63m
This is where it all really began, with their very first Top 10 in 2000. Coldplay’s breakthrough hit went straight in at Number 4 and was taken from their debut album Parachutes, which has sold 2.77m UK chart sales. Yellow has shifted 1.63m across all formats, including 170,000 CD single sales, 430,000 downloads and 118 million streams – not a bad performance in the digital era considering it came out in 2000.

In My Place (2002)
Official Chart peak: 2
UK chart sales: 377,000
The lead single from the band's much-anticipated second album A Rush of Blood to the Head, In My Place brought Coldplay their then-highest chart peak, going straight in at Number 2 in August 2002 (blocked from the top spot by former Pop Idol contestant Darius, with Colourblind). Perhaps surprisingly, despite being their second-biggest selling song on physical format, with 101,000 copies sold, In My Place hasn't really found longevity in the digital era. Its 100,000 downloads and 19.5 million streams see it land in 19th slot on Coldplay's all-time rundown.

Fix You (2005)
Official Chart peak: 4
UK chart sales: 1.73m
One of the band’s signature ballads, Fix You was written by frontman Chris Martin for his then-wife Gwyneth Paltrow following her father's death. Their ‘conscious uncoupling’ would follow nine years later, but the song is still a huge crowd-pleaser, with 112.6 million streams since records began in 2014, including 9.5 million from this year alone.

Viva La Vida (2008)
Official Chart peak: 1
UK chart sales: 1.99m
The band’s first Number 1 was a long time coming – after nine Top 10s, the guys were definitely due a chart-topper. The title track from the band’s fourth studio album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends is their second biggest song of all time, including 896,000 downloads and 123.5 million streams. See the full Top 100 from the week Viva La Vida was Number 1.

Paradise (2011)
Official Chart peak: 1
UK chart sales: 1.69m
Paradise certainly took its time to become the group’s second chart-topper, it finally reached Number 1 on its tenth week in the chart, knocking off Military Wives and Gareth Malone's Wherever You Are to be the first Number 1 of 2012. Paradise has sold just over one million downloads (Coldplay's only million seller) and has been streamed 81.8 million times in the UK.

Princess Of China (2011)
Official Chart peak: 4
UK chart sales: 952,000
Rihanna loves a collab, and this perhaps unlikely one with Coldplay went Top 5 in 2012. Both performed the track at closing ceremony of that year's Paralympic Games in London, helping it reach Number 4.

Hymn for the Weekend (2016)
Official Chart peak: 6
UK chart sales: 1.68m
Speaking of collaborators, there's a very special guest making an uncredited appearance here – Beyoncé. This euphoric tribute to going out and getting off your head was a huge hit in early 2016, spending seven months in the Top 40. it has the second biggest streaming tally of any Coldplay song, with 150.6 million plays, and also managed 302,000 downloads to land as their fifth biggest song in the UK.

Something Just Like This (2017)
Official Chart peak: 2
UK chart sales: 2.07m
Given Coldplay are a band in constant evolution and not afraid to try new musical style, it's fitting that their biggest track of all time is this poppy collaboration with American duo The Chainsmokers.

Scoring 201 million streams and an impressive 320,000 downloads, Something Just Like This has a combined sales tally of just over two million. Following a performance at the 2017 BRIT Awards, the song shot up the Official Singles Chart to peak at Number 2.

Coldplay’s Official Top 20 biggest songs
POS TITLE ARTIST PEAK YEAR
1 SOMETHING JUST LIKE THIS CHAINSMOKERS & COLDPLAY 2 2017 2.07m
2 VIVA LA VIDA COLDPLAY 1 2008 1.99m
3 FIX YOU COLDPLAY 4 2005 1.73m
4 PARADISE COLDPLAY 1 2011 1.69m
5 HYMN FOR THE WEEKEND COLDPLAY 6 2016 1.68m
6 YELLOW COLDPLAY 4 2000 1.63m
7 ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME COLDPLAY 7 2015
8 THE SCIENTIST COLDPLAY 10 2002
9 A SKY FULL OF STARS COLDPLAY 9 2014 1.2m+
10 PRINCESS OF CHINA COLDPLAY & RIHANNA 4 2011 952k
11 MAGIC COLDPLAY 10 2014
12 CLOCKS COLDPLAY 9 2003
13 CHRISTMAS LIGHTS COLDPLAY 13 2010
14 EVERGLOW COLDPLAY 52 2015
15 EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL COLDPLAY 6 2011 600k+
16 SPEED OF SOUND COLDPLAY 2 2005
17 CHARLIE BROWN COLDPLAY 22 2011
18 TROUBLE COLDPLAY 10 2000 400k+
19 IN MY PLACE COLDPLAY 2 2002 377k
20 UP&UP COLDPLAY 71 2016

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