Mercury Prize-winners Young Fathers have sold so few copies of their triumphant album that they could have bought the lot with their £20,000 prize money – and still have change left over.

Young Fathers
(Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

The hip hop trio were surprise victors on Wednesday night, costing bookmakers a hefty sum after coming from behind with their release, Dead, to land the prestigious prize for album of the year.

But the Edinburgh-based act had shifted a mere 2,368 copies of the album by this week – and of those, the band had added only an extra 561 sales since they were placed on the 12-strong shortlist.

Dead is priced at £5.99 on iTunes and the CD is just under £8 with many online UK retailers, meaning their prize exceeds the total revenue generated by its sales.

Their win is expected to help sales rocket, but prior to their win, it had clocked up only a 65th of those enjoyed by fellow nominees for their debut album.

Polar Bear
(Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

The group had generated the fewest extra sales of any act nominated for this year’s prize, marginally behind jazz act Polar Bear, whose inclusion helped them to just 569 further sales.

Young Fathers had even benefited from the exposure of another prize win in the summer when their previous release, a “mixtape” called Tape Two, triumphed at the Scottish Album Of The Year award, also earning them a £20,000 prize.

FKA Twigs
(Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

They beat acts including hot favourite FKA Twigs and Damon Albarn and had been 14-1 with bookmaker William Hill, although with some firms they were placed at 25-1.