Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B Sunday 16th December 2018 Share this article Share

Companies in this article GfK UKIE

Red Dead Redemption 2 has retaken the No.1 spot in the UK physical games charts four weeks after it last held the position.

There has been a spike in sales across many games in the charts - and particularly the Top Three. Red Dead Redemption 2 sales rose 19 per cent, taking it from No.2 to No.1. FIFA 19 saw a 30 per cent sales rise (going from No.3 to No.2), whereas Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 - boosted by a £10 price drop - rose four places to No.3 (sales up 175 per cent)

All three games have sold over one million boxed games in the UK, and combined account for over four million physical games sold.

It does mean last week's No.1 - Super Smash Bros Ultimate - has taken a tumble down to No.4. It seems like a heavy fall, but actually sales only dropped 52 per cent week-on-week, which is a decent result for a game in its second week on sale.

Nintendo Switch is clearly proving to be a popular console as we get nearer to Christmas, and a number of Switch games increased in sales week-on-week. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe holds No.5 in the charts (sales up 20 per cent), and there were sales increases for Pokémon Let's Go: Pikachu, Super Mario Party, Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Not that sales increases are confined to Nintendo games. Xbox One exclusive Forza Horizon 4 saw a 135 per cent sales bump (up from No.17 at No.8), after a £10 price cut. Whereas, PS4-only Spider-Man rose from No.11 to No.9 with a 68 per cent sales increase (again, some price activity drove this).

The rest of the Top Ten includes Spyro Reignited Trilogy at No.6 (up two places after a minor price cut), and Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy at No.10 (also up two places). The only other game in the Top Ten is Battlefield V, which drops to No.7 with a slight eight per cent drop in sales.

Last week's new release Just Cause 4 drops from No.6 to No.13 after a 47 per cent sales fall (again, a relatively minor drop for a game in its second week). And PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds - which came out on PS4 last week - drops three places to No.25 (but sales are only down one per cent).

Big price promotions and marketing around the PlayStation VR Mega Pack sees bundled games PlayStation VR Worlds (No26), Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (No.28), Skyrim VR (No.34), WipeOut: Omega Collection (No.35) and Doom VR (No.36) increase in sales week-on-week.

Here is the UKIE/GfK Top Ten for the week ending December 15th: