Pokémon Sun and Moon is Nintendo's biggest ever UK launch

It was an incredibly strong week for sales at UK games retail, with PS4 posting its most successful week since launch, Pokémon Sun and Moon becoming Nintendo's most successful UK week one, and Watch Dogs 2 rising in sales during its second week.

A lot of that is down to Black Friday, which saw severe discounting on triple-A games and hardware.

Let's begin with PS4, GfK reveals that PS4 posted its most successful non-launch week in the UK. The machine saw bundles of under £200 fly off shelves, and it had an impact on the software charts, too. Popular bundles including Uncharted 4: A Thief's End saw that game return to No.8, while Driveclub makes a comeback at No.20 and Ratchet & Clank slides in at No.25.

It comes as a boost to Sony's hardware, which has found itself in second space in recent months following the launch of Xbox One S. According to our sources, PS4 shifted 142,578 last week, which was 50,000 above Xbox One.

Black Friday discounting also had a major impact on Watch Dogs 2. The game had a disappointing launch last week, but sales actually increased in its second week, boosted by some mild discounting on the title. It's good news for Ubisoft's game, as its install base is now in-line with the performance of recent Assassin's Creed titles.

Back at No.1 is FIFA 17, which saw sales increase significantly week-on-week (again, thanks to Black Friday and bundling). According to one retailer, the game's sales are now over 2m in the UK alone.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has dropped to No.2, but the title nevertheless enjoyed a really strong week-on-week rise in sales, and the title has now overtaken Battlefield 1 as the UK's biggest shooter. The title was reduced to below £25 at UK retailer Sainsbury's.

Away from Black Friday, the big success story of the week has to be Pokémon Sun and Moon. Those two games debuted at No.3 (Sun) and No.4 (Moon). But if those two titles had been combined, it would have comfortably reached No.1 and become Nintendo's most successful UK launch. The previous record holder was Wii Fit, and more copies of Sun and Moon were sold in one day than Wii Fit managed over two.

The two Pokémon games also sold twice as many units as the previous outing, 2014's Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. The game's pre-orders were significantly boosted by the summer success of Pokémon Go on smartphones, going to show how mobile gaming can actually benefit sales of Nintendo's portable hardware - which bodes well for the arrival of Nintendo Switch.

As a result, 3DS hardware sales also, unsurprisingly, jumped last week despite no real Black Friday discounting. Over 35,000 3DS machines were sold according to GamesIndustry.biz sources.

It comes as good news for UK retail after a run of disappointing launch week sales for Titanfall 2 (which also saw a big sales spike thanks to Black Friday discounts, including a £20 offer at HMV), Dishonored 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Watch Dogs 2.

Around 1.93m games were sold last week in total, which is a jump on the 1.77m sold during 2015's Black Friday. Almost 275,000 consoles were sold based on our sources, which is actually a drop of 14 percent over the same week a year before.