Music sales soar as mega-hit 'Blurred Lines' tops the charts

Robin Thicke performing in Cannes (Rex Features)

A string of super-popular singles has seen sales soar at the top of the UK charts over the last few weeks, officials said today.

Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" featuring TI and Pharrell, which became the fastest selling-single of the year last week, retained the Number One spot by selling almost 199,000 copies, 10,000 more than last week.

It means the last two months are the first time since 1999 that every number one single for eight weeks has sold more than 100,000 copies per week, according to the Official Chart Company.

"Thanks to a string of mega-hits in recent weeks...sales of Number One singles are well and truly going through the roof right now," a spokesman said.

"The average Number One single sale over the last eight weeks has been a staggering 150,000 copies - in context, the average Official Singles Chart Number One in 2012 shifted 106,000 copies."

Recent chart-toppers have included current numbers two and three, "Naughty Boy" featuring Sam Smith's "La La La" and Daft Punk featuring Pharrell's "Get Lucky", plus Rudimental featuring Ella Eyre's "Waiting All Night".

This week's top ten also included the debut of X Factor 2012 boy band Union J at Number 6 with "Carry You".

Disclosure, aka Surrey brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence held off veteran rockers Queen's of the Stone Age to top the album chart.

The Reigate electronica duo's With Settle pipped the US band's "Like Clockwork" by 7,000 copies.

PA