Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Monday 6th November 2017 Share this article Share

Activision's Call of Duty franchise has bounced back in the UK following a disappointing 2016.

Call of Duty: WWII hits No.1 and outsells Infinite Warfare's first week by 57% in units and 21% in revenue (physical sales only). The revenue growth is lower due to the existence of the expensive Legacy and Legacy Pro editions of last year's game.

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The game's success doesn't quite match 2015's Black Ops III, at least in physical form. This is to be expected as Black Ops is by far the strongest Call of Duty sub-brand. However, the data does not factor in digital sales, and GamesIndustry.biz understands that digital console sales for WWII are significantly higher year-on-year, and have taken a larger share of the market. This follows our story last week about the rapid acceleration of digital growth in the console space.

It suggests the move back to a historical setting has rejuvenated the franchise.

57% of sales were on PS4, while Xbox One accounted for 42% of the market (the rest coming on PC)

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Because it was Call of Duty week there wasn't a great deal of new titles coming out at the same time. But there were still some interesting developments.

In particular, for Assassin's Creed Origins, which only dropped 36% in its second week on sale. This is an unusually low drop for a second week of a major AAA game, and suggests the franchise may be set for a comeback, too. The decent second week was boosted by an improved performance for the Xbox One version of the game, which has a cheaper average selling price compared to the PS4 edition (sales of the PS4 and Xbox One versions were 50/50 this week).

FIFA 18 holds No.3 with just a 17% drop in sales, while Super Mario Odyssey tumbles to No.4 with a more typical 67% drop in sales. The arrival of new Switch units alongside Odyssey appears to have boosted the sales of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe this week, with both games up 25% week-on-week.

Gran Turismo Sport holds firm at No.5. The game continues to perform strongly and looks set to become a major player in the market for Sony this Christmas. It is one of four racing games in the Top Ten, with Need for Speed to arrive this week.

The other new release of last week, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, falls to No.6 with a 55% sales drop.

The only boxed game that dared to go up against Call of Duty this week was Focus Home Interactive's Spintires: Mudrunner, which comes in at No.24.

As for the week ahead, there is the aforementioned Need for Speed and the launch of Microsoft's new Xbox One X.

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The UKIE/GfK Top Ten for the week ending November 4th is: