Finally, some new faces. The often-stagnant UK physical release chart sees five new titles debut this week. Let’s just ignore the fact that they probably only had to sell a few thousand copies each to break the chart – or possibly even a few hundred to make the lower end of the top 40.
The PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade is the UK’s new number one, dethroning Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, of all things. The Sony-published hack ‘n slash, which was met with a positive reception from the press, also effortlessly takes no.1 in the PS5 top ten.
Take 2’s TopSpin 2K25 was the second best selling boxed release in the UK last week, and this was despite the lack of a Switch version. Considering the Deluxe Edition is an eyewatering £79.99, we didn’t expect to see this chart so highly at launch. Quelle Surprise.
The opposite has occurred for Bandai-Namco’s action RPG SAND LAND. We expected to see it within the top ten this week, but it had to settle for #16. It did however make #7 in the PS5 chart and #5 in the Xbox Series top ten, so it likely had a reasonable launch. Digital sales probably paint a brighter picture too.
Then at #23 it’s TMNT Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants – GameMill’s multiformat conversion of the 2017 Raw Thrills arcade game. Critical reception was lukewarm, with scores being a mixture of 5s and 6s. Oddly, it doesn’t appear in any of the individual format charts. Our guess is that the Switch version sold the bulk of copies, but not enough to break the Switch top 20.
Lastly for new releases, 505 Games’ reasonably well received RPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes took #27 in the all formats chart while showing up at #10 in the PS5 chart.
Filling in the blanks in the all formats top ten, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fell to #2, Hogwarts Legacy dropped to #4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder moved down to #5, Minecraft took #6, WWE 2K24 climbed to #7, Princess Peach: Showtime exited stage left to #8, GTA V held onto #9, and then at #10 it’s a surprise re-entry for Forza Motorsport – which we believe was reduced to £9.99 at Argos last week. Briefly, at least.
Curiously, chart purveyors GfK still compile a 3DS chart – which today has been reduced to a top nine, meaning only nine different new 3DS games were sold in the UK last week. What’s no.1, you ask? Why, only the launch title Rayman 3D, dating back to 2011.