Harry Styles chart update: On course for NUMBER ONE but can he beat Zayn Malik?

The Official Charts Company tracks sales and streaming data from Friday at 0:01 to Thursday at 23:59, and have said the One Direction star’s new track Sign of the Times has shifted 30,000 copies to date – with four days to go before this week’s final tally is revealed.

He is said to be leading his closest rival by a margin of two copies to one, putting Sheeran’s Galway Girl at around 15,000. Shape of You, which has been Number 1 for 13 weeks, is looking set to slip to No3.

These sales figures will be made up of totals from purchases on download stores, as well as streams on services such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Some fans have been pitting Harry and former bandmate Zayn Malik against eachother but there are two reasons why it’s hard to know who has technically done better.

We do know that Zayn’s Pillowtalk sold around 112,497 in its first week. With Harry at 30,000 at just under the half-way stage, it seems as if he is not expected to meet Zayn’s benchmark before Friday.

However, chart rules have actually changed since Zayn’s release. When Pillowtalk was brought out in early 2016, 100 streams counted for 1 sale.

But at the start of 2017, the system was changed so that 150 streams equalled 1 sale.

This means Harry’s Sign Of The Times would have to be streamed much more than Pillowtalk for it to hit that magic 112,497 number: it’s essentially much harder now than it was this time last year.

He does, however, without question seem to be trumping Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson – even though all four have done well so far.

Niall’s debut, This Town, was surprise-released last year and charted at No9 in its first week.

Louis teamed up with Steve Aoki for Just Hold On and peaked at No2 just before Christmas.

Liam Payne, meanwhile, is set to release in the coming months.