Ubisoft must be feeling good – Far Cry New Dawn is this week’s new UK no.1, fending off strong competition.
Deep Silver’s Metro Exodus settled for #2, Bandai Namco’s Jump Stars made #6, while the long-awaited Crackdown 3 debuted just outside of the top ten at #13.
Everything isn’t quite as it seems, though – the ever-informative GI.biz has a few juicy facts that shine a different light on things.
While Far Cry New Dawn was indeed the best-selling game in the UK last week, sales were less than impressive. Ultmately, Metro Exodus had the better week – its higher price point generated more revenue. Not only this, but sales were up a resounding 50% over 2013’s Metro Last Light. Bear in mind here the ongoing shift to digital – in 2013 physical sales still lead the way.
Now here comes the real kicker. New Dawn’s sales were significantly down not just over Far Cry 5, which was perhaps to be expected, but also the fellow spin-off Far Cry Primal. Primal outsold New Dawn by almost four times as many units, claims GI.biz.
Maybe Ubisoft isn’t feeling too good after all.
Crackdown 3’s physical sales also sound rather disastrous, shifting barely 10% of what 2010’s Crackdown 2 managed at launch. However, it has been an Xbox Game Pass poster child for quite some time – we wouldn’t at all be surprised to learn that digital downloads are fast approaching a million. It may have passed that milestone already.
Jump Force paints a better picture, at least for the publisher. Reviews haven’t been too positive yet it managed to enter at #6. This makes it Bandai Namco’s third top ten entry of the year so far behind Ace Combat and Tales of Vesperia Remastered.
To make way for the new arrivals most of the remaining titles in the top ten fell a few places each. Red Dead Redemption 2 – last week’s chart topper – fell to #3, while FIFA 19 tumbled to #5. Resident Evil 2 dropped to #6, NSMB.U is at #7, Kingdom Hearts III moved down to #8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe shifted from #7 to #9, and then at #10 it’s Call of Duty Black Ops 4, which fell five places.
Over in the Switch chart, meanwhile, Captain Toad and Starlink: Battle for Atlas both re-entered the top 20. Last week’s Nintendo Direct news doubtlessly played a part in this.