Prey bounces back to claim UK No.1 in second week Bethesda's game dropped just 32% in sales

Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Monday 15th May 2017 Share this article Share

Following a disappointing opening week, Bethesda's Prey has bounced back to claim the UK No.1 at its second attempt.

Physical sales dropped 32% in its second week, which is good for a triple-A title (sales can often drop by as much as 75%). Most of Prey's reviews were not published until last week because of Bethesda's reviews policy, where it doesn't give critics access to their games until they're available to the public. This could explain the relatively strong second week performance, with consumers holding off to judge the critical reaction (which was strong).

Despite the improvement, boxed sales remain relatively low, although with a quiet release slate over the summer, there's a chance the game will find its audience.

It's Bethesda's first No.1 since Fallout 4.

That means Mario Kart 8: Deluxe ends its two-week stay at the summit of the All Formats Top 40. The Nintendo Switch exclusive drops down to No.3 following a 60% drop in week-on-week sales.

GTA V, the game that just keeps selling, remains at No.2.

Meanwhile, there are no new boxed games in the charts this week. As a result, the number of games sold fell by 25% to 152,000. It's going to be a long tough summer for UK games retail as we await what is already shaping up to be a busy Q4 period.