Hugh Jackman's "The Greatest Showman" Crowned the #1 Album of 2018

East Hamptonite Hugh Jackman loves to sing, and, clearly, the world loves to listen. Case in point: his hit movie soundtrack for The Greatest Showman, released in December 2017, is the world’s highest selling album of 2018 and has broken a record for longest number of weeks in the #1 spot on the U.K. music charts.

On December 31, Jackman posted the Media Traffic’s United World Chart Best Selling Albums of 2018 to his Instagram, which shows The Greatest Showman at #1 with a total of 5.2 million equivalent sales. Far behind it, Drake’s Scorpion came in at #2 with 4.2 million units sold. Jackman, overwhelming by the incredible news, captioned the post: Never in my wildest dreams.

Media Traffic’s United World Chart compiles the sales data from America’s Billboard Top 200, the U.K.’s Official Charts Company Top 100 and equivalent national charts from countries across North America, South America, Europe and Asia. The final worldwide chart numbers consist of 75% physical/digital sales and 25% airplay.

In addition to selling more than any other album this year, The Greatest Showman soundtrack has remained in the top five of Billboard’s U.K. charts for the entirety of 2018. The album finished the last week of the year ranked #1, topping off a record-breaking 24 non-consecutive weeks. The Independent reports the last record holder, Adele’s 21, lasted for 23 weeks between February 2011 and April 2012.

With these high end of the year numbers in mind, one can speculate that Jackman’s upcoming world tour, “The Man. The Music. The Show.,” featuring songs from The Greatest Showman, Les Mis and other Jackman classics, will be another rousing success for the East Ender’s career.