Shenmue 3 – the general public doesn’t care (pic: Deep Silver)

Despite the decades long wait Shenmue 3 has failed to attract a wider audience, as it’s outsold in the new charts by Football Manager 2020.

It’s very easy for more hardcore gamers to get entirely the wrong idea about what games are and are not popular. Shenmue 3 has been dreamt about for years, but now that it’s actually out it’s made barely a ripple in the UK physical sales charts.

The best it could manage was a debut at number 17, selling only half as much as last year’s Shenmue 1 & 2 remaster. Although that was multiformat, whereas Shenmue 3 is a PlayStation 4 and PC exclusive.



A percentage of sales will also have been digital, which aren’t counted on this chart, but that’s the same for any game. Indeed, being a PC exclusive the sales for Football Manager 2020 would be expected to be almost entirely digital, but it still managed to come in ahead of Shenmue 3 at number 16.


Of course, Shenmue 3 was a Kickstarter project, and so the 70,000 or so that backed it will have got their copies already – which also aren’t counted in this chart – but it suggests that interest from the wider public is minimal.

In the end, and since Chart-Track count Pokémon Sword and Shield (and its double pack) as separate games, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare floated back up to the number one spot, for its fourth non-consecutive number one of the year.

Pokémon did well in its second week though, with a 58% drop for Sword and 65% for Shield, which compares well to the 70%+ drop of Pokémon Sun and Moon.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order did even better though, with a fall in sales of just 47%, which is very good for the second week of a blockbuster title. Although it’s hard to tell whether that’s due to the rising Star Wars fever ahead of the new film or simply good word of mouth.

Since it’s Black Friday this week the next set of charts will be completely different, but it’s hard to guess how they’ll settle down after that, as there are no more big name retail releases left this year.

That means either FIFA 20 or Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare are likely to end up as the Christmas number one, or simply whatever game is discounted the most closer to the big day.

UK all formats retail chart - 23 November 1 (4) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4/XO)

2 (2) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4/XO/PC)

3 (1) Pokémon Sword (NS)

4 (5) FIFA 20 (PS4/XO/NS)

5 (3) Pokémon Shield (NS)

6 (6) Luigi’s Mansion 3 (NS)

7 (9) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS)

8 (12)Minecraft (NS)

9(10)Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (NS)

10(13)Fortnite: Darkfire Bundle (XO/PS4/NS) Ukie Games Charts©, compiled by GfK Chart-Track

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