UFC 4 releases and takes the top of UK sales chart

The UK retail game sales chart looks very different this week, with the newly released EA Sports UFC 4 taking pride of place at the top of the chart.

The last game in the series, UFC 3, sold better though. UFC 4’s sales are 48 percent of what UFC 3’s were in February 2018. However, digital sales are not taken into account in this chart. With most companies reporting digital sales to be around half of all sales since the pandemic began, it’s likely that UFC 4 has managed to sell as well, if not better, than its predecessor.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which topped the chart last week, had to step down this week under the heft of UFC 4’s sales. It currently sits one place in front of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which has held strong in third place for another week.

Two Switch games in the top ten shows that Switch hardware and software sales are still going strong. It will be interesting to see if Mario Kart 8’s sales are impacted by the launch of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 later this year.

Ghost of Tsushima is finally falling further down the chart. This week saw sales drop by 23 percent week-on-week, forcing the game down to fourth from second last week.

The rest of the chart is as it has been for the last few weeks. FIFA 20 slips to fifth, Grand Theft Auto 5 is in seventh, and Ring Fit Adventure rounds out the chart in tenth. Where the chart saw some new movement was further down.

Pokemon Shield saw a return to the chart in thirty-third place. Sales were up by 14 percent week-on-week, which is interesting considering that Pokemon sword is generally the more popular of the two latest games in the series.

Thanks to the launch of the PC version of Horizons: Zero Dawn, the Complete Edition has been pushed up to thirty-fourth place. The game saw a sales boost of 20 percent week-on-week. Unfortunately for Guerrilla Games, the PC version of the game has been met with much criticism due to poor optimization.

The top ten best-selling games at physical retail in the UK for the week ending August 15, 2020: