Coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody, Destiny 2 is the UK’s new no.1. It had the biggest launch of 2017 so far, beating previous record holders Horizon Zero Dawn and Ghost Recon Wildlands.
There’s a slight sting in this tale, however. Physical sales were down an estimated 58% over the original Destiny, which launched three years ago. According to leaked figures, D1 sold 417k copies at launch whereas D2’s week one sales were 175k.
There are a few explanations for this shortfall. Firstly, digital sales aren’t included in the UK chart – it’s likely digital pre-orders far exceeded that of the original, with many eager to play the moment servers went live.
Secondly, the PC version isn’t due out until next month. And thirdly, the original Destiny launched on a Tuesday, giving it an extra day to generate sales.
We’d wager that some gamers have simply chosen to wait for a ‘complete edition’ instead, due to the franchises’ DLC oriented nature. The lack of pre-launch reviews may have also had an impact.
Despite all this, Destiny 2’s launch shouldn’t be marked down as a failure – Bungie reported 1.2m players were online concurrently over the weekend. US sales are yet to be revealed too, which could show an all-together different story.
The UK top 40 saw a few other new entries this week. Sony’s Knack II made #12, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Stories arrived at #21 – while also topping the 3DS chart – and the Switch’s Binding of Issac: Afterbirth debuted at #36.
As for other occurrences of note, ARK: Survival Evolved and Everybody’s Golf have both left the top ten after just one week on sale, while Yakuza Kiwami has left the top 40 entirely. It won’t be long until Agents of Mayhem suffers the same fate – Deep Silver’s colourful shooter is currently clinging in at #39. Only a sub-£20 price drop can save it now.