4 hours ago, GreyAsh said:

The question should be: DO they decide who was the biggest artist of the year?

I know they did in the late 80s - but they did the singles artists and albums artists separately.

I was just wondering what is more probable - whether they would use the method of sold units or reverse points system as BB.

Out of this week's entries, three have made previous year end lists - two of which were last year with 'People Watching' (#50) and 'Just Keep Watching' (#96). 'Sweater Weather' has made two previous year ends, having been #81 in 2022 and #85 in 2023. It was also very close in 2021.

'One Dance' is now the highest track on the Spotify YTD not on the OCC list at #55, closely followed by 'Boys Don't Cry' at #61. Would guess both have a decent chance of making it here next week.

'Turn the Lights Off' has now charted on audio streaming, but 'People Watching' joins 'Mystical Magical', 'Seventeen Going Under' and 'A Bar Song (Tipsy)' as songs on the YTD yet to chart on audio streaming this year.

'LV Sandals' dropped out the audio streaming chart this week so every song to have charted on audio streaming for all three weeks is on the YTD.

Edited January 20Jan 20 by Maestro

I know it’s very early days, but it’s weird that the biggest song of the year so far hasn’t yet spent a week in the top five in 2026! One of the vagaries of ACR I suppose.

I remember it was considered a big thing when ‘Love The Way You Lie’ was the biggest seller of the year without reaching the weekly #1. With streaming it seems only a matter of time before it happens again.

'Bad Habits' was the second biggest song of 2022 despite not reaching the Top 10 that year, and I agree a combination of ACR and the long tail of streaming make it highly possible for a song such as 'Man I Need' to finish comfortably above its official weekly highpoint of the year on this chart.

Seems very possible (likely) that Man I Need could be the #1 song of the whole year imo. Guess we’ll see what Harry Styles has to offer soon.

10 hours ago, Maestro said:

Seems very possible (likely) that Man I Need could be the #1 song of the whole year imo. Guess we’ll see what Harry Styles has to offer soon.

Eek - very underwhelmed by Harry’s new song. Maybe it’s a grower.

Last Christmas and Should I Stay Or Should I Go definitely out this week, think Locked Out Of Heaven and either Boys Don't Cry or Midnight Sun will replace them.

Don't rule out One Dance, Fame is a Gun or The Man Who Can't Be Moved imo

Week 4:

1	1	Olivia Dean	Man I Need	215,000	1,310,000
2	2	Taylor Swift	The Fate Of Ophelia	172,000	920,000
3	3	Djo	End Of Beginning	171,000	1,350,000
4	4	Raye	Where Is My Husband!	168,000	770,000
5	6	Dave featuring Tems	Raindance	165,000	400,000
6	5	Huntr/x, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami & KPop Demon Hunters Cast	Golden	161,000	1,490,000
7	7	Alex Warren	Ordinary	132,000	2,310,000
8	8	Olivia Dean	So Easy (To Fall In Love)	121,000	500,000
9	9	Sam Fender and Olivia Dean	Rein Me In	114,000	800,000
10	11	Zara Larsson	Lush Life	103,000	3,140,000
11	10	Olivia Dean	Nice To Each Other	97,000	870,000
12	15	Sienna Spiro	Die On This Hill	92,000	260,000
13	13	Sombr	12 To 12	88,000	610,000
14	14	Haven featuring Kaitlin Aragon	I Run	87,000
15	12	Disco Lines and Tinashe	No Broke Boys	87,000	810,000
16	16	Sombr	Back To Friends	78,000	990,000
17	17	Taylor Swift	Opalite	73,000	480,000
18	18	Saja Boys, Andrew Choi Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, samUIL Lee & KPop Demon Hunters Cast	Soda Pop	67,000	780,000
19	73	Bruno Mars	I Just Might	67,000
20	20	Ravyn Lenae	Love Me Not	64,000	1,200,000
21	19	Sabrina Carpenter	Manchild	64,000	870,000
22	22	Chappell Roan	Pink Pony Club	61,000	1,870,000
23	24	Olivia Dean	A Couple Minutes	61,000	240,000
24	21	Kate Bush	Running Up That Hill	61,000	2,930,000
25	23	Esdeekid and Rico Ace	Phantom	60,000
26	25	The Police	Every Breath You Take	59,000	2,850,000
27	26	The Killers	Mr Brightside	58,000	6,860,000
28	37	Prince & The Revolution	Purple Rain	58,000	1,840,000
29	28	Sombr	Undressed	57,000	940,000
30	33	Goo Goo Dolls	Iris	57,000	4,620,000
31	32	Olivia Dean	Let Alone The One You Love	57,000	240,000
32	29	Benson Boone	Beautiful Things	56,000	2,990,000
33	34	Olivia Dean	The Hardest Part	56,000	780,000
34	31	Fleetwood Mac	Dreams	56,000	3,990,000
35	27	Tyla	Chanel	56,000
36	35	Olivia Dean	Dive	56,000	720,000
37	60	PinkPantheress	Stateside	55,000
38	30	Esdeekid	Century	55,000
39	42	Sonny Fodera, D.O.D. and Poppy Baskcomb	Think About Us	53,000
40	38	Esdeekid	4 Raws	53,000
49	51	Fleetwood Mac	Everywhere	48,000	4,220,000
56	62	Olivia Dean	OK Love You Bye	46,000
59	61	Gigi Perez	Sailor Song	45,000	1,500,000
60	70	Lady GaGa & Bruno Mars	Die With A Smile	44,000	1,770,000
61	65	Radiohead	Creep	44,000	2,630,000
62	71	Sienna Spiro	You Stole The Show	43,000
72	74	Chrystal	The Days	41,000	1,210,000
75	83	Gunna & Burna Boy	WGFT	40,000
78	80	Myles Smith	Stargazing	39,000	1,850,000
82	84	Olivia Dean	Lady Lady	38,000	270,000
85	87	She & Him	I Thought I Saw Your Face Today	38,000
87	89	Alex Warren	Carry You Home	37,000	1,080,000
89	93	Tate McRae	Just Keep Watching	36,000	500,000
90	91	Myles Smith	Nice To Meet You	36,000	4,780,000
92	94	Vance Joy	Riptide	36,000	4,780,000
93	-	Zara Larsson	Midnight Sun	35,000
94	99	The Neighbourhood	Sweater Weather	35,000	2,540,000
95	97	Sam Fender	People Watching	35,000	720,000
96	98	Sam Fender	Seventeen Going Under	35,000	2,690,000
98	-	Kings Of Leon	Sex On Fire	35,000	4,460,000
100	-	Stereophonics	Dakota	34,000	2,790,000
-	95	Journey	Don't Stop Believin'	34,000	4,330,000
-	100	The Clash	Should I Stay Or Should I Go	34,000	2,090,000
-	75	Wham!	Last Christmas	31,000	6,820,000

Some pretty bad guesses from me this week then. Surprised the Cure didn’t make it, hopefully next week.

Fingers crossed Dakota can make it this year having just missed out last time

Seeing that “Boys Don’t Cry” was as high as #56 on audio streaming and barely scraped 10k sales I thought its premium ratio must be very poor and that it might miss this week. Certainly wasn’t expecting “Dakota”.

“Don’t Stop Believin’” the only non Christmas song that made Week 1 to have fallen out, because it had a new year boost and then fell back.

"Midnight Sun" entering

Mr Brightside is 40,000 ahead of Last Christmas by Wham! according to the above table