Ed Sheeran releases his Play album on September 12th. It's difficult to predict what he will open with at this stage of his career - he's clearly past his imperial phase now, but he should still be able to open with decent numbers for 2025. What do we think?

Subtract opened with 76k (14k from streaming). Will guess this one opens similarly

Possibly now gonna say just over the 100k mark as some tour dates in the UK have just been announced today which I think may perhaps boost it a tiny bit more.

11 minutes ago, gasman449 said:

Subtract opened with 76k (14k from streaming). Will guess this one opens similarly

This one will be buoyed by 4 top 40 hits though and Subtract only had 1, so I would expect slightly higher numbers

It's also been on pre-order for so many many months, 100k minimum

Im gonna "Play" it safe and vote 80k just above subtract, yes its had 4 top 40w and we actually had more of a taste of it than subtract, but they have been very diversely received, yes its been on preorder much longer than subtract too but as someone else has already said he really is in his hard to predict era

I went with 80k-100k

I said in another thread somewhere I think I expected him to open with about 150k... I didn't realise '-' *only* debuted with 76k... so I will readjust and say, still over 100k but more in the 108k range.

He’s had a couple of hits off this album but I’m not sure how big a fanbase he has to multi-buy formats. I’m going to say somewhere close to his last album and say 60-70k or so. Not a bomb by any means but he’s way past his commercial peak.

Still reckon he should get an easy number 1 even if @Tafty has bought jades album 60k times

I think it will do less than subtract personally.

2 hours ago, Bjork said:

It's also been on pre-order for so many many months, 100k minimum

Come on it been on preorder since April, similar to many bands currently.

I went with 80-100k!

3 minutes ago, Steve201 said:

Come on it been on preorder since April, similar to many bands currently.

the new normal is much shorter pre-ordering times, especially for big names

it's only the small indie bands that need 6 months

2 minutes ago, Bjork said:

the new normal is much shorter pre-ordering times, especially for big names

it's only the small indie bands that need 6 months

Nope, the likes of Olivia Dean, Lola Young and Joy Crookes have all been on preorder since May!

Taylor Swift and the likes know at this stage if their career they don’t need any preorders, they could release on the day the albums announced but that isn’t the same for everyone or is the new normal.

Edited September 3Sep 3 by Steve201

I think it will do less than his last album but not by a lot. Going with 65k.

He’s been pushing formats like crazy I’m going with 80/90k

I think Jade will be at 2 with around 18/20k now she’s done the signings

13 minutes ago, Mr. C. Joel said:

He’s been pushing formats like crazy I’m going with 80/90k

I think Jade will be at 2 with around 18/20k now she’s done the signings

Twenty One Pilots are also releasing that week - they sold 34.6k first week with their last album.

I reckon JADE will be #4 at best with ~23k sold, behind Ed, 21P and Sabrina.

22 minutes ago, WhoOdyssey said:

Twenty One Pilots are also releasing that week - they sold 34.6k first week with their last album.

That was purely because they went in hard on shows, signed posters, signed art cards and bundles. They had Banquet signed art cards too which all sold out.

This album they seem to have a large number of vinyl, £45 boxset collectors CD's so I can't imagine they'll be doing the same numbers.

I'm confident now Jade's done enough for #2 if Sabrina's album doesn't get a new lease of life. The signings being announced was huge especially 11 of them.