The BPI recently published ‘All About The Music 2026’, a yearbook of figures, patterns and trends from the UK’s music industry based on 2025’s market. They use data from the UK Official Charts statistics to reveal the nation’s fluctuating tastes and what it means for both artists and listeners. This year’s edition found that in 2025, rock music accounted for 22.2% of overall single consumption, shy of pop’s 33.3% – a 0.8% increase over 2024 and the highest share rock has had since 2016.

The latest boon in the genre’s performance has been aided by six songs classified as rock entering the UK Top 10 this year, especially compared with only one achieving the feat in 2020. One such single from 2025 was English indie rock star Sam Fender’s BRIT Song of the Year winner ‘Rein Me In’, featuring Olivia Dean. The song broke a chart record by spending 35 weeks in the Top 40 Chart before finally clinching the number one spot this February, becoming Fender’s first UK number one single and his first entry on the US’s Billboard Hot 100.

New acts breaking through were responsible for more growth, such as British metal sensations Sleep Token, whose single ‘Caramel’ was their first in the Top 10, while American singer-songwriters Gigi Perez and sombr had chart success with tracks ‘Sailor Song’ and ‘Back To Friends’ respectively. Other big rock entries this year profited from online trends and nostalgia to climb back up, including Benson Boone’s ‘Beautiful Things’, which endured from 2024 to become the biggest rock song and 7th biggest overall chart single of 2025’s year-end list. Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’, The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ and Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ all also made the Top 40 final list.

Rock also cemented its place as the biggest genre for album consumption, increasing from a 35.3% share of stats in 2024 to 36.0% last year, handily beating out pop’s 28.9%. Of the four albums they class as rock to make the year’s Top 10 Album Chart, two were a by-product of Oasis’s reunion and their enormously-successful world tour. Their 1995 LP ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory’ and 2010 greatest hits compilation ‘Time Flies… 1994-2009’ both re-entered the charts, alongside Fleetwood Mac’s 2018 compendium ‘50 Years – Don’t Stop’.

The biggest rock album released last year was Sam Fender’s ‘People Watching’ which won the 2025 Mercury Prize, and had the highest first-week sales of any album for the year. Of the 17 rock albums to top the charts throughout 2025, 15 were by British artists, coming from Aerosmith and Yungblud’s collaborative release ‘One More Time’, Pulp’s comeback album ‘More’, and Sleep Token’s ‘Even In Arcadia’ among others. The news, which the BPI published on the 29th of April, comes in a week where Welsh metal group Skindred have just achieved their first Number One Album after 30 years with ‘You Got This’. Further statistics from the research show that rock accounted for a commanding 54.9% of vinyl sales in the UK, bolstered by modern pressings as well as genre-defining classics such as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumors’ and Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.

The BPI’s Chief Executive, Dr Jo Twist OBE, says “For decades, rock has played a critical role in maintaining and enhancing the UK’s status as a global music superpower. This was truer than ever in 2025. Rock has long flourished thanks to its incredible foundations built on a deep, exceptional and still-cherished back catalogue. We can now add to that contemporary stars such as Sam Fender, Sleep Token, Wolf Alice, and Yungblud, who hail from across the UK and who are breathing new life into this much-loved genre both at home and around the world.”

You can explore these findings and more in ‘All About The Music 2026’, which is free for BPI members and available for purchase now on their website. The institute is also planning a live ‘insight session’ titled ‘The Long Play: UK Rock in the Age of Streaming’. The event will be a deep-dive into rock’s enduring popularity and where it goes from here, featuring panels of industry experts. The event is today, the 30th of April, held at Liverpool Sound City – click here for more info.