Hands up who still loves tapes?

While we may be living in the digital age of streaming, a surprising amount of people still purchased music on cassette in the UK in 2018. Check out the best-selling albums below.

As the Official Charts Company has announced, the format saw an 125.3% year-on-year increase to reach 50,000 sales in 2018. Often thought of as defunct, this was the highest recorded year for cassette sales in the UK since 2004.

While retailers did stock new albums on cassette, most of the sales came from the artists’ own official webstores, and often part of a limited edition run.

The 1975‘s acclaimed ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships‘ was the best-selling cassette of the year, having shifted 7,523 copies in total. Not only that, but 7,147 were sold in the first week, making it the fastest-selling cassette since July 2002.

Elsewhere, Kylie Minogue‘s ‘Golden’ came in at No.2 with sales of 6,262 tapes, followed by The Prodigy‘s ‘No Tourists‘ at No.3 with 2,148 copies sold.

The top five was completed by the ‘Awesome Mix 2’ soundtrack from Guardians Of The Galaxy and Ariana Grande‘s ‘Sweetener‘. Other new releases to make the top 20 included Mumford & Sons‘ ‘Delta‘, Snow Patrol‘s ‘Wildness’, ‘Odyssey’ by Take That, ‘America’ by 30 Seconds To Mars, ‘Trench‘ by Twenty One Pilots, Manic Street Preachers‘ acclaimed ‘Resistance Is Futile‘, Arctic Monkeys‘ massive ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino‘, Blossoms‘ second album ‘Cool Like You‘ and Pale Waves‘ debut ‘My Mind Makes Noises‘.

Check out the top 20 best-selling cassettes of 2018 below, and see the full top 40 here.

1. ‘A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS’ – THE 1975
2. ‘GOLDEN’ – KYLIE MINOGUE
3. ‘NO TOURISTS’ – PRODIGY
4. ‘GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – AWESOME MIX 2’ – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
5. ‘SWEETENER’ – ARIANA GRANDE
6. ‘DELTA’ – MUMFORD & SONS
7. ‘NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC’ – VARIOUS ARTISTS
8. ‘GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY – AWESOME MIX 1’ – ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
9. ‘WILDNESS’ – SNOW PATROL
10. ‘ODYSSEY’ – TAKE THAT
11. ‘AMERICA’ – 30 SECONDS TO MARS
12. ‘TRENCH’ – TWENTY ONE PILOTS
13. ‘RESISTANCE IS FUTILE’ – MANIC STREET PREACHERS
14. ‘BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY – OST’ – QUEEN
15. ‘BEAUTIFUL LIFE’ – RICK ASTLEY
16. ‘ST. JUDE RE:WIRED’ – COURTEENERS
17. ‘YOUNGBLOOD’ – 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER
18. ‘TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO’ – ARCTIC MONKEYS
19. ‘COOL LIKE YOU’ – BLOSSOMS
20. ‘MY MIND MAKES NOISES’ – PALE WAVES

Elsewhere, Arctic Monkeys topped the best-selling vinyl albums of 2018, while the albums to have sold the most copies overall were dominated by George Ezra, Ed Sheeran, Drake, Dua Lipa and The Greatest Showman soundtrack.