James Arthur has The X Factor’s biggest selling single

James Arthur has the biggest X Factor single of all time, new stats have revealed.

His 2012 winner’s track Impossible has accumulated 1.5 million combined sales thanks to downloads and streaming, more than any other song by an X Factor contestant.

James beat himself to the top spot with his 2016 comeback next in the ranks with just under 1.5 million total sales, according to data published by the Official Charts Company.

It follows a revamp to the charts which now sees ‘streaming sales’ included when it comes to the huge milestone of reaching a million single sales.

After James’ two songs is 2008 winner Alexandra Burke with her cover of Hallelujah which has a total of 1.4 million combined sales.

And 2006 winner Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love is next with 1.3 million combined sales since its release a decade ago.

Fifth in the X Factor rankings is a four way tie between Shayne Ward’s That’s My Goal and the show’s biggest groups: One Direction’s debut hit What makes You Beautiful and Little Mix’s Black Magic and Shout Out To My Ex all have 1.1 million combined sales to date.

Other ‘millionaire’ X Factor singles come from Matt Cardle with his winner’s song When We Collide and former One Direction star Zayn with his single Pillow Talk.

You can see the full list of 311 million selling songs and sales on the Official Charts Company website here.

The current series of The X Factor continues Saturday and Sunday nights on ITV.

This year show boss Simon Cowell is going all out to find another star to hopefully join the ranks of those in the ‘millionaires’ club.

Simon said: “There’s always a gap in the market when you’re good. It’s why this show’s called The X Factor, you can’t define what it is, it’s not just a great voice and personality.”

The music mogul said the talent on the series this year “feels different”.

He explained: “Sometimes you have to check yourself and go, ‘Why did we make the show in the first place?’. We made the show to be fun to watch but also to do something where people who couldn’t get a record deal could get what they needed to give themselves a head start. It worked.

“I think this year we’ve put the emphasis back on them, it’s all about them, their personalities, their originality, let them be the stars of the show.”