Play

Play is the eighth studio album by English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran. It was released on 12 September 2025 through Gingerbread Man Records and Atlantic Records under licence to Warner Music. It is the first of Sheeran's planned pentalogy of albums titled after media control symbols, with Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, and Stop to follow. There is a sixth, Eject, which Sheeran stated he would like to be posthumously released on the day he dies.

Sheeran co-wrote and produced Play with various producers and musicians, including Ilya, Blake Slatkin, Cirkut, Omer Fedi, Savan Kotecha, Elvira Anderfjärd, Dave, and Arijit Singh, as well as his frequent collaborators Johnny McDaid and Fred Again. The album experiments with sounds from Indian and Persian music, while also continuing the electropop sound Sheeran explored in = (2021). Play was supported by six singles: "Azizam", "Old Phone", "Sapphire", "A Little More", "Camera", and "Symmetry". It became Sheeran's ninth consecutive chart-topper in the United Kingdom. It also topped the charts in Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium (Flanders), Poland, Australia, and New Zealand. The album received mixed reviews from critics, who appreciated its production and global influences but criticised the lack of artistic reinvention. Play won Album of the Year at the Los 40 Music Awards.

An EP, Play (The Remixes), featuring Indian artists like Arijit Singh, Karan Aujla, Hanumankind and Jonita on remixes of four songs from the album was released on 17 October 2025. To promote Play, Sheeran embarked on the Loop Tour in January 2026 in New Zealand. A deluxe edition, featuring 14 additional tracks, was released on 28 November 2025.