Summer sales boost UK retail as Crash Bandicoot holds No.1

The Top Three best-selling game at UK retail last week were identical to the week before.

Crash Bandicoot retains its No.1 spot following a 28% sales dip, Splatoon 2 holds on at No.2 after a 56% sales slide, just narrowly ahead of GTA V at No.3 (a 19% sales leap).

But below that and it's all change. We've had a smattering of new releases, including Nintendo's Miitopia for 3DS (at No.7), Alternative Software's Rugby League Live 2 (at No.8) and Hey, Pikmin! (at No.29). The other 3DS game released last week (to coincide with the arrival of New 2DS), Dr Kawashima's Devilish Brain Training, failed to make the Top 40, and only reached No.12 in the 3DS charts. However, the game targets a casual audience, and so its week-one performance isn't as important.

However, the real activity is with catalogue releases, with retailers adopting multiple summer promotions that has seen unit sales rise 12% week-on-week. GfK reports there has been increased hardware bundling, three-for-two deals and simple price discounting.

Bethesda is the company that made the most of it, securing No.4, No.5 and No.6 in the charts with Fallout 4 (sales up 118%), Doom (sales up 103%) and Dishonored 2 (sales up 110%). FIFA 17 drops a place to No.9, but actually increased in sales by 42%, while Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands is up 94% following a small discount last week.

Elsewhere, the Horizon/PS4 hardware bundle helped that game climb 8 places to No.11, while Battlefield 1 received a hefty discount and rose 24 places to No.14 (212%).

Here is the UKIE/GfK Top Ten: