Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is back to the top in the UK

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has returned to the top of the UK physical sales chart, even though the game has seen a week-on-week drop in sales of 16 percent.

Modern Warfare replaced Pokemon Sword and Shield, which have seen a 58 percent drop in sales week-on-week, falling to third in the chart. Specifically, Pokemon Sword saw a 65 percent drop in sales and fell to third place from first last week, and Pokemon Shield dropped to fifth this week from third last week.

This is considered to be a good result for the games, considering that Pokemon Sun and Moon, the last major Pokemon releases, saw sales drop by 70 percent in their second week on sale.

The Nintendo Switch had a very strong week last week thanks to a number of pre-Black Friday sales at retailers. Luigi’s Mansion 3 is in sixth place with an 11 percent rise in sales week-on-week, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Edition has risen from ninth to seventh with a 26 percent increase in sales.

Minecraft on Switch re-enters the chart in eighth with an increase in sales of 43 percent week-on-week, and Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 has risen from tenth to ninth with a 4 percent boost to sales. This is the third consecutive week that the game has seen an increase in sales since it launched.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has managed to maintain its position in second place in the chart this week, with physical sales falling by 47 percent week-on-week. Sadly the most recent brand new release, Shenmue 3, has only reached 17th place in the chart, selling just over half of what the re-release of Shenmue 1 and 2 did last year. However, the numbers for this game can’t reflect the true response to the game, since nearly 70,000 Kickstarter backs will have been given a copy of the game without sales being recorded.

Shenmue 3 is only just behind Football Manager 2020, which debuted in 16th place. As a PC game the majority of sales will be digital, though it’s worth noting that this year’s release was the first to feature a new eco-friendly box.

Also outside of the top ten is Death Stranding, which saw a 51 percent drop in sales week-on-week and fell to 13th place. Conversely, Just Dance 2020 saw a 108 percent rise in sales week-on-week, and jumped up to 12th place in the chart.

With next week seeing the start of Black Friday sales, the chart is expected to look very different, with many games such as Mario Kart 8 and Forza Horizon 3, which are packaged with hardware bundles, expected to see huge boosts to sales.

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