Nintendo Switch dominated in yet another quiet week for the UK games retail market.
This year’s biggest hit game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, is back at No.1 after an 11-week absence. The game has been a mainstay in the charts since its launch in March. Last week, Nintendo revealed Animal Crossing sales have exceeded 20 million globally, making it the Switch’s second best-selling game after just over three months on shelves.
In total there are six Switch-only games in the UK physical retail Top Ten. The others being Mario Kart 8: Deluxe at No.3, Minecraft on Switch at No.5, Paper Mario: The Origami King at No.7, Ring Fit Adventure at No.9 and 51 Worldwide Games at No.10.
Last week’s No.1, PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima, slips to No.2 after a 46% sales drop. Meanwhile, FIFA 20 is now back in the Top Ten at No.4 after some price discounting at retail. EA’s game was at No.19 last week, and unusually disappeared from the Top 40 entirely for two weeks before that.
In fact, FIFA isn’t the only EA game where this has happened. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is at No.20 after several weeks out of the Top 40, while Need for Speed: Heat has returned at No.16. Both enjoyed a bump in sales of 78% and 91% respectively. It’s possible these games suffered from distribution and stock issues.
There was just one new game in the charts this week in the form of Fast & Furious: Crossroads, which limps over the line at No.17. The game is from Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios (now owned by Codemasters) and published by Bandai Namco. Its performance seems disappointing, although this data only tracks physical game sales and does not include digital.
However, Codemasters does continue to see success with its other recent racing release F1 2020, which achieves its fifth week in the Top Ten at No.6.
Finally, The Last of Us: Part 2’s stay in the Top Ten finally comes to an end after eight weeks. The hit PS4 game drops to No.11 this week.
Here is the GfK Top Ten for the week ending August 8th
| Last Week | This Week | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons |
| 1 | 2 | Ghost of Tsushima |
| 4 | 3 | Mario Kart 8: Deluxe |
| 18 | 4 | FIFA 20 |
| 10 | 5 | Minecraft (Switch) |
| 5 | 6 | F1 2020 |
| 6 | 7 | Paper Mario: The Origami King |
| 9 | 8 | Grand Theft Auto 5 |
| 11 | 9 | Ring Fit Adventure |
| 12 | 10 | 51 Worldwide Games |
