UK Sales Chart – Week ending 3rd January
2009 begins in a similar fashion as 2008 did, with a FIFA game at the top of the charts. FIFA 09 is now not only the Christmas No.1, but the first No.1 of 2009, knocking Call of Duty: World at War off the top spot for the second time, despite a 41% drop in sales.
1. FIFA 09 (EA Canada)
2. Call of Duty: World at War (Treyarch)
3. Need for Speed: Undercover (EA Black Box)
4. Guitar Hero: World Tour (Vicarious Visions)
5. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)
6. Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
7. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
8. Quantum of Solace (Treyarch)
9. Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)
10. Tomb Raider: Underworld (Crystal Dynamics)
11. Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
12. Sonic Unleashed (Sonic Team)
13. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
14. Fallout 3 (Bethesda)
15. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
16. Lego Batman: The Videogame (Traveller’s Tales)
17. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami Digital)
18. Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft Montreal)
19. Football Manager 2009 (Sports Interactive)
20. 100 Classic Book Collection (Genius Sonority)
Sales of Activision’s World War II shooter dropped 50% since last week, but Call of Duty still managed to stay 5,000 sales ahead of EA’s Need for Speed: Undercover, which was a non-mover at No.3.
Despite losing out on the top spot, Activision can’t be too disheartened as they still have three games in the Top 10. This includes Guitar Hero: World Tour, which moved up to its highest ever chart position at No.4.
Activision’s final top 10 title is Quantum of Solace, which moved down one place since last week, from No.7 to No.8.
Old favourite, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has performed well this week, moving up from No.8 to No5. Meanwhile, Mario Kart Wii has slammed on the brakes with a 60% plummet in sales, dropping from fourth place to No.7. But it’s still Nintendo’s highest-ranking full price title.
Wii Fit and Lego Batman have both bounced back up in sales, jumping nine and eleven places respectively. Shaun White Snowboarding and Football Manager 2009 have crept from just outside the Top 20, to just into it.
At number 20 itself is one of the few titles to actually increase in sales in the post-Christmas lull. I guess the people who bought the 100 Classic Book Collection for DS don’t realise that all of those books are available as FREE e-books.
As a side note, any iPhone/iPod Touch owners should immediately download the free Stanza application by Lexcycle, which provides free access to thousands of free e-books, which can easily be browsed and downloaded from online catalogues. Shockingly, I haven’t been paid to say that, I just like reading.
Disappearances from the Top 20 this week include Mirror’s Edge, LittleBigPlanet and Guitar Hero III.
