ABBA’s greatest hits collection Gold has become the second biggest selling album in UK chart history after managing to surpass the Beatles’ iconic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The album was first released back in 1992 and to date has sold more than 5.1 million copies, just nudging ahead of the Beatles by 15,000 copies.

Neither have been able to topple Queen’s Greatest Hits from 1981 which remains the biggest selling album of all time having sold 5.9 million copies.

Founding ABBA member and songwriter Björn Ulvaeus said in an interview with the Official Charts Company: "It feels unreal - outselling the greatest record of all time!"

Marin Talbot who is managing director of the Official Charts Company said: "The British people took Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid to their hearts from the night that they won the Eurovision Song Contest on British soil, in Brighton, 39 years ago.

"So it is perhaps apt that their huge Gold hits album has reached such heady heights all these years later."

It is estimated that one in five households in the UK own either a copy of Gold or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.