Ed Sheeran thanks fans for 'best professional year' after his third album goes triple platinum

Singer-songwriter shows appreciation for topping charts and winning an MBE

The 26-year-old's hit "Shape of You" reached over one billions steams in 2017 (Adam Berry/Getty Images)

Ed Sheeran has thanked fans for their support during "the best professional year" of his life.

The singer-songwriter's third album Divide debuted at number one this year and his singles "Shape Of You" and "Perfect" also topped the chart.

As he wrapped up work ahead of Christmas, Sheeran wrote on Instagram: "Final day of work for the year today.

"Been the best professional year of my life, but it's flown by. Seems like a week ago that Shape of you and Castle on the hill came out.

"Thank you to everyone who has supported everything I did this year, amazing way to start the year and an amazing way to end it.

"Hope you all have a very merry christmas, happy holidays, and a good break. See you in 2018 xx."

PA