Far Cry 5 UK launch is the biggest in Far Cry history
Strong Easter sales all round for the boxed games market as Ubisoft ends March on a high
Despite releasing in the first quarter of the year, Far Cry 5 is the fastest selling game in the franchise's history (in the UK, anyway).
It's a well received game and has had a strong launch campaign. But it's also arrived during one of the quietest starts to the year we've seen for console games, and has capitalised on that fact - Far Cry 5 is comfortably the biggest name on the schedule for the first six months of the year, and the biggest launch of 2018 to-date.
It also happens to be the most successful game to ever launch during 'week 13', beating the previous record holder - BioShock Infinite.
In addition, the PS4 version of the game is the sixth biggest launch of a Ubisoft game on an individual format in UK chart history. The PS4 version accounted for 60% of the game's sales.
Note: this is just boxed sales. Digital sales are not included.
It means last week's No.1, the Xbox One exclusive Sea of Thieves, drops to No.3. The game suffered a 52% drop in sales, which is actually not that bad for a AAA console game.
It was the Easter week, and therefore we witnessed a lot of price activity on software, which has resulted in a number of titles spiking in sales week-on-week and rising up the charts.
The No.2 title is FIFA 18, which saw sales rise 61%. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe overtakes five games to make No.4 (sales up 39%), while PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds on Xbox One rounds off the Top Five after a 98% sales increase.
There are actually three Xbox One exclusives in the Top Ten. Forza Motorsport 7 shot back into the Top 40 after some price activity, and returns to the charts at No.9.
Other big titles such as Assassin's Creed Origins (No.8) and Call of Duty: WWII (No.6), also rose up the charts with a 61% and 100% increase in sales respectively.
It was a good week for Switch, too. Alongside Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey sales rose 30% (although drops a place to No.11), and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild rises 26% in sales (but drops from No.16 to No.18).
Sticking with Nintendo, the big release of last week Detective Pikachu on 3DS had a far better second week - which is a rare sight indeed. Sales rose 76% and the game is now at No.15 in the charts (up from No.23).
The other new game of last week, EA's new IP A Way Out, drops to No.7 after a 61% slide in sales.
Here is the UKIE/GfK Top Ten for the week ending March 31st.
Last Week | This Week | Title |
---|---|---|
New Entry | 1 | Far Cry 5 |
5 | 2 | FIFA 18 |
1 | 3 | Sea of Thieves |
9 | 4 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe |
12 | 5 | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds |
13 | 6 | Call of Duty: WWII |
2 | 7 | A Way Out |
14 | 8 | Assassin's Creed Origins |
Re-Entry | 9 | Forza Motorsport 7 |
7 | 10 | Grand Theft Auto V |