Spyro Reignited Trilogy releases and takes top of charts

The week saw the release of Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee. The games were the most successful launches of the week, but because sales were split didn’t top the chart.

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu debuted in fourth place in the chart last week, and Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee entered in sixth place. However, if the launches of both games had been combined then Pokemon Let’s Go would have been at the top of the chart for last week.

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee weren’t the only new titles to enter the chart last week, with a total of six new games in the top ten. However the launch of these new Switch titles led to a boost in hardware sales, which pushed up the sales of other Switch games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition saw a 94 percent boost in sales, sitting in 9th position, Super Mario Party saw a 25 percent sales boost and is now in 18th place in the chart, Super Mario Odyssey saw a 30 percent boost and is now in 19th place, and finally The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild has risen to 28th place thanks to a boost in sales of 52 percent.

Thanks to the Switch release of Just Dance 2019 the game rose from 39th place to 14th with a 465 percent boost in sales. The game was also included in a Switch console bundle with Pokemon Let’s Go, which definitely added to this sales boost.

Interestingly the opening sales for Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee were down when compared to the releases of previous installments. Compared to Pokemon Sun and Moon sales of Pokemon Let’s go were down by over 60 percent, and 5 percent compared to the releases of Pokemon X and Y.

Given that Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee are effectively remakes of Pokemon Yellow, which released for the GameBoy in 1998, it’s not that surprising to see that sales aren’t as good as those of full title releases. Pokemon Let’s Go introduced Pokemon Go mechanics to the Pokemon series, tying into the mobile title and acting as a casual entry point for new Pokemon fans. When a true Pokemon RPG releases for the Switch in 2019 the sales are likely to be very different.

The official top selling retail game in the UK last week was Spyro Reignited Trilogy. The trilogy comprises of three Spyro games which have all been rebuilt for modern consoles, much like the Crash games were in Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy. 75 percent of Spyro Reginited sales were for Playstation 4, with the remainder on Xbox One.

Bethesda’s latest Fallout title, Fallout 76, made it to third place in the chart in its opening week. The game’s sales are down by 82.4 percent compared to Fallout 4, but given that this is a very different type of Fallout game it wasn’t expected to sell as well. However, Fallout 76 did generate the most revenue from physical sales over the week.

Hitman 2 was another big title to release last week, managing to debut in tenth place in the chart. This title abandons the episodic format of its predecessor, bringing all available content to players from day one. Compared to the last physical Hitman game to release, Hitman Absolution in 2012, sales are down by 90 percent.

Elsewhere in the chart a new physical version of Fortnite, the Deep Freeze Bundle, debuted at eighth in the chart, with an even split of sales between Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Finally, Civilisation 6 released for Nintendo Switch last week also, making it to 18th place in the Nintendo Switch chart. The new version release didn’t push the title up in the all-platforms chart.

Last week £34.6 million was generated from boxed retail game sales in the UK.

A more extended list of top sellers can be found here.