Hogwarts Legacy narrowly denies Metroid Prime Remastered the No.1 spot | UK Boxed Charts

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Hogwarts Legacy narrowly holds onto No.1 for a fourth consecutive week in the UK.

The game's retains the top spot in the physical retail charts despite a 30% drop in sales week-on-week.

Its biggest challenger this week is Metroid Prime Remastered from Nintendo, which misses out on No.1 by just 1,000 units. Metroid Prime Remastered was a surprise digital launch back in early February, and has been available as a download for nearly a month. Even so, this is the fourth biggest physical Metroid game launch of all time, and sales of this boxed version are only 45% lower than what the original managed to do back in 2002.

Metroid Prime Remastered is the second biggest physical release of the year so far, ahead of the Dead Space remake and Fire Emblem Engage.

Nintendo does not share digital sales, so we'll not know for sure how successful the game has been in the UK. But it appears that the surprise launch strategy has been effective.

Also new this week is Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty from Koei Tecmo, which debuts at No.8. 96% of physical retail sales were on PlayStation platforms, although boxed sales of the game are low. We'll have a better idea of its performance once the digital data comes in.

The final new release in the physical charts is Scars Above from Prime Matter, which comes in at No.22.

In terms of last week's new releases, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe falls from No.3 to No.6 after a 44% drop in sales week-on-week, while Octopath Traveller 2 tumbles from No.6 to No.14 after a 45% sales slip. Atomic Heart from Focus Home Interactive goes from No.7 to No.25 due to a 69% sales fall.

In terms of the rest of the Top Five, FIFA 23 drops to No.3 despite a 6% sales increase, while God of War Ragnarok -- which remains a popular PS5 bundle -- holds No.4 with a 4% sales improvement. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe is still at No.5, and that game also saw a rise in sales of 8%.

Here is the GfK UK Boxed Top Ten for the week ending March 4, 2023: