Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age tops the UK boxed charts

July may be, historically, a dead month for the UK boxed games market. But it can be a real opportunity for smaller and niche products.

Take this week's No.1: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. It might come as a surprise to see this sitting at the top of the charts, but with few games to challenge it, it pretty much had the week all to itself.

In fact, although it might come as a surprise, this is actually an anticipated release amongst some of the more core Final Fantasy fans out there. It's a remaster of the decent PS2 game Final Fantasy XII (which was released just as the PS3 was about to launch), but featuring the expanded elements from the Japan-only version of the game. And with the franchise enjoying a bit of a resurgence following the success of Final Fantasy XV, it was always likely to do ok.

Of course, we might expect the game to tumble down the charts next week. But Square Enix's decision to push the game out in early July looks to have paid off for this niche release.

Elsewhere, and the boxed market actually enjoyed a strong week overall, boosted by Amazon's Prime Day retail event.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has shot back up the charts to No.2, with a 440% sales increase. The game was being sold for under £30 last week. Overwatch (No.4) sales jumped up 82%, GTA V (No.5) rose 22% week-on-week, Forza Horizon 3 (No.6) enjoyed a 157% sales spike, Minecraft: Xbox Edition (no.7) leapt up 289% and Wipeout Omega Collection (No.8) saw a 281% sales increase. Rounding off the Top Ten, Horizon Zero Dawn makes it to No.9 with a 89% rise, while Injustice 2 is back at No.10 following a 95% sales jump.

The only game in the Top Ten to suffer a week-on-week sales decline was Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy, which still managed No.3.

There were no other new releases in the charts, and for the first time since it launched, not a single Nintendo Switch game in the Top Ten. Nintendo may be readying its next big Switch stock push for the arrival of Splatoon 2 later this week

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