Charting at Number 7 in its opening week back in February, Ordinary proved itself to be quite the opposite as it smashed Official Chart records. Boasting an incredible 13 weeks at the Official Singles Chart summit in 2025 (12 of those consecutive), Ordinary saw Alex become the US artist with the longest-running UK Number 1 single ever, surpassing Slim Whitman, who managed 11 consecutive weeks at the top with Rose Marie way back in 1955.
Alex also bagged the longest-running Official Number 1 single of the 2020s in the process, steamrolling ahead of Ed Sheeran’s Bad Habits, which managed 11 weeks at the top in 2021.
In 2025, Ordinary amassed a total of 2.2 million UK chart units, the most streamed track of the year, boasting 262 million combined UK audio and video streams. It’s also the most-downloaded single of 2025 (51,000). So out of the ordinary!
And the good news doesn’t end there. Alex also finds Carry You Home inside the year-end Top 40 at Number 30. The track, which peaked at Number 9 in the UK back in April, clocked 1 million UK chart units in 2025.
MORE: 2025 Music Year in Review
In at Number 2, and officially named the biggest British single of 2025, is Lola Young’s self-described ‘ADHD anthem’ Messy. Young’s first-ever Official Chart entry in December 2024, Messy soon skyrocketed to the top spot on 24 January this year, going on to spend four straight weeks at the summit. In her breakout year, the BRITs Best Pop Act 2025 nominee also earned two Top 40 albums this year: This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway (16) and I’m Only F**king Myself (3).
In 2025, Messy notched 1.4 million of its total 1.6 million UK chart units, and 164 million combined UK audio and video streams.
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Proving the power of the slow burn, Chappell Roan’s euphoric Pink Pony Club closes out the year at Number 3. Originally released on Chappell’s 2023 debut The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, Pink Pony Club first caught the UK’s attention in September 2024, entering the Singles Chart at a relatively-modest Number 21. After a steady climb, the track finally reached the summit in March of this year, sitting at the top for two weeks on the trot. To date, Pink Pony Club’s chalked up 156 million combined UK streams, totalling 1.8 million UK chart units to date; 1.4 million of those in 2025.
It’s the first of two Chappell songs inside 2025’s Top 40, with Good Luck, Babe! landing at Number 13 on the list.
Truly cementing K-pop’s status in British culture, Netflix phenomenon Kpop Demon Hunters broke Official Chart records this year. Not only did the film’s soundtrack notch up 25 weeks atop the Official Compilations Chart (24 of those consecutive), but its animated pop star protagonists dominated the Official Singles Chart.
HUNTR/X’s Golden is officially named 2025’s fourth-biggest song of 2025 overall, after becoming only the second K-pop Number 1 single in UK Official Chart history back in August. The band – comprising real-life K-pop idols EJAE, AUDREY NUNA and REI AMI – clocked 10 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the Singles Chart this year, Golden now has 1.3 million UK chart units and 157 million combined UK streams under its belt.
And, fact fans, 2025 saw Golden join The Archies’ 1969 hit Sugar, Sugar as the longest-reigning animated Number 1 single in the UK ever. One to slip into your New Year quiz!
At Number 5, BLACKPINK idol ROSÉ and Bruno Mars kept the game going with their seemingly-unstoppable 2024 release APT. The ode to a popular Korean drinking game is the second of three K-pop entries to make our year-end chart – the most we’ve ever seen from the genre in the year it made Official Chart history.
Our final K-pop entry to make this year’s Top 40 is Saja Boys’ fizzy bop Soda Pop. Having peaked at Number 3 this summer, the Kpop Demon Hunters tune ends the year in 37th place.
HUNTR/X and Saja Boys are two of only five groups to make the list this year, sitting alongside Goo Goo Dolls, The Killers and Fleetwood Mac.
Undoubtedly one of the year’s biggest breakout stars, Olivia Dean claims the official biggest song released in 2025 with Man I Need (9). One of the standout cuts from Olivia’s chart-topping second album The Art Of Loving, the UK streamed Man I Need 119 million times this year.
The blossoming British talent netted nine Official Top 40 singles across the year, three of which make the year-end Top 40. Man I Need is joined by Nice To Each Other (23) and Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In (38).
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MORE: The best songs and albums of 2025 – Official Charts Staff Picks
The third-biggest British entry on the list comes courtesy of Bolton-born singer, DJ and producer Chrystal – and the lore behind this one goes a long way back. With its initial recording laid down in 2015, The Days’ chart success was a decade in the making.
Seeing organic viral social media success in December 2024, The Days reached its Number 4 Official Chart peak in January 2025. At Number 12 on the year-end chart, 86% of The Days’ overall 1.2 million UK chart units were clocked in 2025. It’s also one of two entries on the end-of-year chart for Chrystal, as Dior, her summertime chart-topping MK collab lands at Number 40 too.
He’s nothing to be sombr about! New York native Shane Boose makes the big leagues, landing two tracks in the overall Top 40 in his breakout year. sombr makes the list with his first-ever Official Chart entry back to friends (15) and undressed (16).
Another 2025 chart-topper, Sabrina Carpenter’s Manchild spent two non-consecutive weeks at the summit, ending the year at Number 24.
Thanks to its viral resurgence, and its feature on the Deadpool & Wolverine soundtrack among other factors, Goo Goo Dolls’ transcendent 1998 hit Iris was recently crowned 2025’s most streamed song from the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and comes in at Number 28 on the UK’s biggest songs of the year, some 27 years after its original release.
Speaking to Official Charts on the feat, Goo Goo Dolls’ lead vocalist John Rzeznik says:
“It’s official – 2025’s most streamed song of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s is our song, Iris. Who would have thought, after all these years?”
Guitarist Robbie Takac adds: “This is unbelievable, man!”
Big new songs released in 2025 come courtesy of Taylor Swift’s former chart-topper The Fate Of Ophelia (29), WizTheMc & bees&honey’s Show Me Love (32), Disco Lines & Tinashe’s No Broke Boys (35), Ed Sheeran’s Azizam (39) and MK ft. Chrystal’s Number 1 smash Dior (40).
Other Official Chart highlights of 2025
Together For Palestine’s charity single Lullaby is the fifth most-downloaded song of 2025, despite being available for only two weeks following its release on December 12. The track charted at Number 5 on 2025’s Official Christmas Singles Chart.
Soulful South London breakout star Skye Newman is one of the year’s hottest new talents, with Family Matters finding a place inside the wider Top 100 (69).
In the year that Oasis staged arguably the biggest reunion in the history of popular music, would you believe that The Kooks’ unassuming 2006 hit Naïve actually sold and streamed more in the UK than any Oasis song (71).
Oasis do land a couple of entries inside the Top 100, though: Wonderwall (86) and Don’t Look Back In Anger (88).
The Official biggest songs of 2025