UK Charts: Football's coming home

This week's top ten listing is a chart of two halves, football just taking the lead as FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 holds its position at the top of the group yet again.

There's no change in second or third position either, with Eidos scooping the double with Hitman: Blood Money and Tomb Raider: Legend respectively. The gap between first and second has increased thanks to widespread World Cup retail promotions, Hitman sales dropping 16 per cent while EA's football legend gains an 18 per cent spike in multi-format sales.

Nintendo's Brain Training game on the DS climbs from last week's number six to this week's number four, side-stepping Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 5, which holds its own for another week at number five.

Sensible Soccer weaves past THQ's defence, securing sixth place and pushing Moto GP '06 down one to seven. Animal Crossing: Wild World makes its way back up the charts, climbing from nine to eight, closely marked by Championship Manager 2006 and Football Manager 2006 in ninth and tenth place respectively.

Notable new entries this week include the latest litter to arrive in the Nintendogs family, Dalmatian and Friends finding their home at number twelve and marking the third DS exclusive title in the top 40.

Midway makes its mark at fourteen with Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, debuting at number two in the PC chart behind Valve's Half-Life: Episode One, and someone somewhere must be having a budget title sale, because Crazy Frog Racer has resurfaced at number 34, followed by Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast and EA's Burnout Revenge.

It ought to be a busy weekend at retail this week, new releases coming in thick and fast to make up for last week's poor showing. Potential chart-changers include Rockstar's delayed Liberty City Stories on PS2, Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers and PSP title Infected from THQ, animated movie tie-in Over The Hedge from Activision, and Tenchu: Time of the Assassins from Sega.