Crash Bandicoot is UK No.1 again, but should it be Sonic Mania?
Update: Sega says yes
Update: Sega tells GamesIndustry.biz that Sonic Mania would have been No.1 in the UK charts if digital data was counted by 'quite some margin'
The latest UK boxed charts are in, and Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy was the best-selling game for a seventh week, despite a 23% drop in sales week-on-week.
There's no denying that Activision's compilation has done massive business this summer, and at its current pace may even overtake Horizon: Zero Dawn as the most successful PS4 game of the year. However, there was one major release last week that's missing from the GfK/UKIE Top 40 entirely.
Sonic Mania arrived on Tuesday alongside some impressive review scores, but was only available digitally - so therefore it is not counted in the boxed charts. However, Sega tells us that if digital downloads were included then its game would have topped the charts by a large margin. Sonic Mania continues the trend of nostalgic releases performing strongly, following Crash Bandicoot and Wipeout.
There were two new boxed releases this week, although neither performed especially strongly. At No.4 is Agents of Mayhem, the new IP from Saints Row developer Volition. Publisher Deep Silver may well have expected the game to have performed better considering the studio's pedigree.
Meanwhile, down at No.20, Cities Skylines makes the charts following the release of the PS4 edition. Interestingly, back in March 2015 when that game was released on PC, it would have been the No.1 title of the month had digital data been counted.
Cities Skylines was released on Xbox One earlier this year, but didn't make the charts.
Meanwhile, the discounting on Bethesda games continues to boost sales of Fallout 4, Doom and Dishonored 2. And with the football season underway, Football Manager 2017 returns to the charts (at No.22) following a 476% increase in weekly sales.
Here is the boxed UK sales charts for the week ending August 19th:
Last Week | This Week | Title |
---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Crash Bandicoot: N.Sane Trilogy |
3 | 2 | Grand Theft Auto V |
2 | 3 | Fallout 4 |
New Entry | 4 | Agents of Mayhem |
7 | 5 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe |
5 | 6 | Doom |
4 | 7 | Dishonored 2 |
8 | 8 | Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege |
6 | 9 | Splatoon 2 |
9 | 10 | Forza Horizon 3 |