Within hours of Prince’s death being confirmed, fans channelled their grief by buying, downloading and streaming music from his extensive back catalogue.

By early Friday, the top best-selling physical albums on Amazon.co.uk all belonged to the multi-instrumentalist.

This included two greatest hits collections, CD and vinyl editions of his seminal Purple Rain, and 1987 classic Sign O’ The Times.

PrinceHis hits are topping charts everywhere. (Koji Sasahara/AP/PA)

And seven of the online retailer’s 10 most popular albums were also Prince releases – the exceptions being compilation Now 93, plus offerings from Adele and Sia.

A similar surge of activity on the singles chart could see Prince make a late break for the top spot – which would be his first UK number one single in more than two decades since 1994′s The Most Beautiful Girl In The World.

By the early hours of Friday, the iTunes download chart saw Prince’s Purple Rain in second place behind last week’s number one, One Dance, by Drake.

Prince has previously achieved five UK number one albums and a further 14 top 10s.

It is not uncommon for showbiz deaths to trigger a sales spike.

In January, David Bowie’s final record Blackstar rocketed to number one as mourning fans helped the late singer secure a quarter of the spots in the UK Top 40 album chart, days after his death.

The following month, little-known indie band Viola Beach entered the Official Top 40 singles charts as fans paid tribute to the four-piece who were tragically killed along with their manager in a road accident.

READ MORE: Pop Queen Sheena Easton pays tribute to music legend Prince