ABBA ‘over the moon’ as they top charts with first album in almost 40 years

ABBA say they are “over the moon” after their first album in almost 40 years went straight to number one, selling 204,000 copies in its first week.

Despite getting mixed reviews, Voyage, released last Friday, has also become the fastest-selling album of the year so far.

Nine in ten copies were physical, including 29,900 on vinyl, the Official Charts Company (OCC) said.

That makes it the “fastest-selling vinyl release of the century”.

In the last decade, only three other acts have surpassed 200,000 sales in an album’s first seven days.

They are Adele with 25, Divide by Ed Sheeran, and One Direction’s Midnight Memories.

Voyage’s immediate rise to the top means ABBA have now had 58 weeks at number one on the Official Albums Chart.

Only two other acts in history have done better – The Beatles and Elvis Presley.

“We are so happy that our fans seem to have enjoyed our new album as much as we enjoyed making it!” ABBA said in a statement.

“We are absolutely over the moon to have an album at the top of the charts again!”

Voyage is their first album since 1981’s The Visitors and their 10th number one in the UK.

In the summer their compilation, Gold, passed 1,000 weeks on the British chart.

Since forming in 1972, ABBA have sold an estimated 385 million records.

They split in the early 1980s.