One Direction's Midnight Memories named 2013's best-selling album

One Direction's Midnight Memories has been named the best-selling album worldwide of 2013.

The boyband released their third studio album in November (13) and data from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has now revealed it sold four million copies globally in its first five weeks. The achievement pushes One Direction's record past Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP 2 to land them the top spot in the BPI's list of best-selling albums of last year (13).

The information was amassed from physical record sales, downloads and streams.

Announcing the pop group as Global Recording Artist of 2013, the BPI's Gennaro Castaldo says, "Around one in eight albums sold around the world are by British artists and One Direction are certainly playing their part in maintaining this fantastic achievement. It all helps to add up to a golden decade of global success for British music, and with some huge albums out later this year, not least from the likes of Coldplay in May and a rumored new release from Adele, there must be another good chance that a British artist will again top the global best-sellers list come the end of the 2014."