Retro PS2 TimeSplitters Titles Outperform PS5, PC Flop Concord in UK Charts | Push Square

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We don’t mean to flog a horse while it’s already down, but astounding data coming out of the UK reveals that two retro TimeSplitters titles – released as part of PS Plus Premium but also sold separately on PS5 and PS4 – outperformed tentpole first-party title Concord. Of course, we know the Firewalk Studios debut didn’t do particularly well – estimates put it at around 25k copies sold worldwide – and it was eventually pulled from sale on 3rd September as a consequence. For clarity, this data only accounts for a couple of days of the first-person shooter’s sales, although it was available a little earlier for those who plumped up for the Deluxe Edition.

Nevertheless, it was the 261st best-selling game in the UK during the tracked August period, which spans both digital and physical data. What makes this truly astonishing is that the emulated versions of TimeSplitters 2 (218) and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (229) both did better. Only the original TimeSplitters (326) performed worse. That really puts things into perspective.

Make like a banana and split

Future imperfect

Present perfect

It was generally a weak month for the UK games industry, with the likes of Grand Theft Auto 5 and old Borderlands titles dominating, after various promotions were deployed alongside the movie. (Which also flopped, by the way.)

PS5 hardware sales in particular struggled, down 57% year-over-year – although it was, once again, the best-selling system in the country. Sony ran some price promotions around the same time in 2023, however it’s clear that the extremely high price of the platform is starting to cause the company some headaches, and impeding the rate at which its install base is growing. Unless the Japanese giant can get the price down, expect to see more and more year-over-year declines.

One other tidbit worth noting is that an enormous 75% of the games sold in the UK this August were purchased digitally. That’s an enormous swing, up 10% year-over-year, and it helps demonstrate