Sales of boxed video games dropped 6% in the UK week-on-week, despite the release of three new titles.
The best-selling new release was Dead Island 2 by Deep Silver, which shuffles to the top of the UK boxed charts. It is the third biggest game release of the year, behind Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 4. It sold roughly half of what Resident Evil 4 managed, but significantly better than Dead Space. We won't know how the game compares to the original until the digital data is released later in the week.
Coming in second place is Minecraft Legends. The physical game sold best on Nintendo Switch, which accounted for 76% of its sales. Not only is digital data missing from these figures, but Minecraft Legends (which is published by Microsoft) is part of Xbox Game Pass, too. The PlayStation versions accounted for 19% of boxed sales, with the remaining 5% on Xbox.
Just missing out on second place is Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Nintendo Switch (although the game is No.2 in the Single Format Charts). This game was destined to be a tough sell. It's the first game in the series for 15 years. It was initially due early last year, but was postponed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. When it finally has arrived, it's launched into a tough market, and just a few weeks before the big new Nintendo game (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). As a result, it's no surprise it hasn't done huge figures, but it has found an audience following positive reviews last week.
Elsewhere, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe drops to No.4 with a 13% sales slide. While FIFA 23 falls four places to No.5 after a 25% drop.
In fact, only two games in the entire Top 40 (Red Dead Redemption 2 at No.38 and Kirby and the Forgotten Land at No.31) saw
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