Staggering sales of Ed Sheeran’s new album Subtract revealed

ED Sheeran’s new album is outselling the rest of the top 25 combined.

His sixth record Subtract, released on Friday, is already the fastest-selling of the year after four days.

It had sold 56,071 copies by the end of Monday.

The 24 albums behind him sold a combined total of 54,844 copies in that period.

They include albums by Canadian singer The Weeknd and British rapper Nines, both in the top five.

This year’s previous fastest-selling album was Did You Know That

There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd by Lana Del Rey.

That was released in March and sold 41,000 copies in a week.

The huge sales figures will be a relief for Ed, 32, who said he feared Subtract might not be successful — because critics had been giving the album positive reviews.

He said: “I’m worried about that, because all my biggest records, they hate.”

Subtract was inspired by a traumatic month last year when his wife Cherry Seaborn, 31, was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour and his best friend Jamal Edwards died.