The first ever album chart that includes online streaming sales has seen veteran rockers Led Zeppelin rise to the top.

Their album Physical Graffiti is ahead of contemporary stars Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran 40 years after it was first released.

Midweek sales figures from the Official Charts Company, which now include data from services including Spotify, show Led Zeppelin ahead of Sam’s In The Lonely Hour by around 1,700 copies.

Sam Smith (Richard Shotwell/AP)
Led Zeppelin are ahead of Sam Smith in the mid-week charts (Richard Shotwell/AP)

Ed’s album, X, completes the top three and experts expect him and Smith to receive a sales boost after their appearance at tonight’s Brit Awards.

In the last 12 months to January, the number of songs streamed in the UK has doubled to 50 million a day and the singles chart started accepting streaming data in July.

The Official Charts Company takes the 12 most-streamed tracks from each album and the top two are down-weighted in line with the average of the next 10. These streams are then added together, divided by 1,000, and added to the rest of the album’s sales.

Ellie Goulding blowing a kiss at a fashion show
Ellie Goulding looks set to stay at number one (Thibault Camus/AP/PA)

The sales figures suggest Ellie Goulding will keep hold of top spot in the singles chart with Kelly Clarkson on course to bag this week’s highest new entry and go straight to number two with Heartbeat Song.