Ghost Recon: Wildlands – the biggest game of the year so far

Despite having more mixed reviews than most other major games this year, it’s the new Ghost Recon which is the biggest launch so far.

The new Ghost Recon has had the biggest first week of any other game this year, and becomes the second fastest-selling Tom Clancy game ever, after The Division (which still holds the record for the biggest first quarter launch ever in the UK).

Not that Wildlands is a bad game, but considering some of the titles that have been released in the last few months it’s ironic that the one with the least rapturous critical reception should be the biggest seller.



However, most of the big titles so far this year have been format exclusives – while Wildlands is on both Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (at a very even 52% to 48%, in favour of Sony’s console).


That means that Horizon Zero Dawn only held the record of fastest-selling launch title for a single week, although it dropped only as far as number two in the all formats chart.

Chart-Track has given no indication of what kind of percentage sales drop either it or Zelda: Breath Of The Wild took in their second week, but Nintendo’s game also seems to have held on well. Although Wii U sales have grown as a percentage this week, from 22% to 40%.

The biggest new entry of the week was the console release of Lego Worlds, which unlike the normal Lego titles is more of a freeform Minecraft style affair.

Square Enix’s acclaimed action role-playing NieR: Automata made it to number six in the all formats charts, but came in behind Zelda at number eight in the individual formats top 10. That’s still not bad, but suggests they probably should have waited for a quieter week to release it. Although the game has been doing very well in Japan.

The final new entry of the week is 3DS title Mario Sports Superstars, which snuck in at number 37 in the all formats chart and 34 in the individual formats top 40.

For once there are no major retail releases this week (so why didn’t NieR come out this Friday instead?), and that probably means Wildlands will keep its number one spot until the release of Mass Effect: Andromeda the week after.

UK individual formats chart – 11 March 1 (-) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (PS4)

2 (-) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (XO)

3 (1) Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

4 (-) Lego Worlds (PS4)

5 (-) Lego Worlds (XO)

6 (2) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (NS)

7 (3) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (Wii U)

8 (-) NieR: Automata (PS4)

9 (5) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4)

10(4) 1-2-Switch (NS)

UK all formats chart – 11 March 1 (-) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (PS4/XO)

2 (1) Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

3 (-) Lego Worlds (PS4/XO)

4 (2) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (NS/Wii U)

5 (3) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4/XO/360/PS3/PC)

6 (-) NieR: Automata (PS4)

7 (6) FIFA 17 (PS4/XO/360/PS3)

8 (8) Rocket League: Collector’s Edition (XO/PS4/PC)

9 (4) 1-2-Switch (NS)

10(11)Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare: (PS4/XO/PC)

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