OREANDA-NEWS. "Shape of You" from the British artist's third album ÷ ("divide") reached the 3 billion listens milestone on Spotify on 22 December, reports NME. The track appeared on the platform in January 2017.

Sheeran shared his impressions on Spotify's Instagram account: he called such a result "absolutely insane".

"['Shape of You'] wasn't really meant to be an album. When I finished writing the song, Ben Cook from my label said it should be a single. But I wanted "Castle on the Hill" to be the single. We released both songs at once...and I was wrong. It was 'Shape of you' that scored 3 billion,"- Sheeran shared.

Sheeran included Shape of You on his third studio album, although he initially had no intention of doing so. He doubted its success as a standalone hit, but the then head of his record label, Ben Cook, persuaded him to release the single.

Now Shape of You tops the list of tracks that have garnered more than 1 billion listens. MIA Drake and Bad Bunny are in second place.

Earlier, several other songs of the musician became Spotify hits, breaking the mark of one billion listens. These include "Castle On The Hill", "Happier", "Galway Girl", "I Don't Care" and "Beautiful People".

On October 29, Ed Sheeran unveiled his fourth album, Equals. Just a week after its release, the record received gold status in the UK. The song "Bad Habits" topped the UK charts for 11 weeks and reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100.