Borderlands 3 releases and tops the UK boxed charts

Borderlands 3, the latest iteration in the classic shoot-em-up IP, has shot to the top of the UK physical sales chart. Indeed, Borderlands 3 has become the biggest “boxed” launch of 2019 – selling more physical units on its first week of UK sale than Day’s Gone, a PlayStation exclusive which hit the shelves in April.

Borderlands 3 is not the biggest Borderlands release to date – Borderlands 2 (2012) shipped twice as many boxed copies in its first week of release – but without access to the digital sales figures for Borderlands 3 it is difficult to compare the two titles.

The market has shifted heavily from physical to digital since 2012 and the Borderlands brand has benefitted from this. Steam, PSN and Xbox Live versions of older Borderlands games have gained a cult following and it may be that digital downloads of Borderlands 3, added to the boxed sales, will see the game surpass the overall performance of its predecessor.

Another weighty AAA title takes second place in this week’s charts: Gears 5. Microsoft’s third-person shooter, available exclusively on PC and Xbox One, shipped 25% less physical copies than its predecessor, Gears of War 4, but the lack of digital data again clouds the picture.

Indeed, the fact that Microsoft have heavily pushed subscription services like Xbox Gold make it even tougher to track just how many new players have “purchased” Gears 5.

A new release that can boast better physical sales figures than a predecessor is Konami’s eFootball PED 2020. The game, a rebrand of the long-running Pro Evolution Soccer series that has competed with – and, at times, defeated – EA’s FIFA, though it was a long time ago, showed an 18.5% jump on the first week figures of PES 2019.

The last new release to make the top ten this week is Greedfall, an RPG developed by Focus Home Interactive which puts gamers into a colonial battle for control of an island with a mysterious secret.

Elsewhere it’s more or less business as usual in the top ten. Last week’s number one, NBA 2K20, suffered a 54% week-on-week sales drop and charts at number 4, while long-standing releases like GTA V and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe continue to perform well.

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