UK Sales Chart – Week Ending 18th October

A 54% dip in FIFA 09 sales allows Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer to take the crown from EA. THQ can be pleased that Saints Row 2 has entered the charts at No. 3, but it just didn’t have the might to overwhelm the Great British love of football.

1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami Digital)
2. FIFA 09 (EA Canada)
3. Saints Row 2 (Volition)
4. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
5. Lego Batman: The Video game (Traveller’s Tales)
6. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts)
8. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (EA Salt Lake)
9. Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway (Gearbox Software)
10. Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games (Sega)
11. Family Trainer (Namco)
12. Bioshock (2K Marin)
13. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Neversoft)
14. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Sora Ltd.)
15. Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
16. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward)
17. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames (Pandemic Studios)
18. De Blob (Blue Tongue)
19. Lego Indiana Jones: Original Adventures (Traveller’s Tales)
20. Samba De Amigo (Gearbox Software)

In contrast to FIFA, the Playstation 3 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 was the most popular, taking 58% of sales, Xbox 360 accounts for 40%, and the PC for just 2%. The PS2 version of Pro Evo isn’t released until the end of the month, so the next-gen consoles has better make the most of sales before then, as the PS2 Pro Evo was the highest-selling version last year.

Despite taking the no.1 spot from FIFA, Pro Evo was not able to match its rivals impressive launch week sales. In fact, FIFA’s first-week sales on Xbox 360 were greater than those of Pro Evo’s across all three formats. Last year the Xbox 360 launch sales of the two series were almost identical, but this year FIFA has sold 2.66 times more than that of PES on Microsoft’s box. Launch sales of PES on Xbox 360 are lower than last years offering, but PS3 sales have increased 39% on the previous year.

Saints Row was previous an Xbox 360 exclusive franchise, but the sequel launched on PS3 which gained 27% of sales. Saints Row 2 was the second-best selling game on the 360 this week, and only 5,000 units behind PES.

Despite an increase in sales, Wii Fit dropped two places, from No. 3 to No. 5, while Mario Kart Wii managed to maintain its sixth place position. There was a re-entry at No. 12 for Bioshock, due to its belated release on Playstation 3.

Three conspicuous games have disappeared from the chart this week; Halo 3 has gone because it’s now classed as a budget title, thanks to being available for less than £25 brand new. Pure sales dropped just enough so that it would be sitting at No. 21 if this chart was a little larger. And Super Mario Galaxy sales have strangely plummeted so far that it was only the 39th best-selling game on Wii last week. Why has the portly plumber lost favour in this great nation? We may never know. Such are the mysteries of the weekly sales chart…