Xbox One bundles push Minecraft and Sea of Thieves back into UK top ten sales chart

Black Friday is consistently the biggest retail shopping event of the year and while total UK physical game sales were down compared to 2018, retailers still sold through an impressive 1.3 million physical game copies last week. This also means that the UK’s top ten games chart is very different this week, with some surprise games jumping back into the fold and others falling a bit lower in the rankings.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz, out of the 1.3 million games sold on Black Friday last week, approximately 500,000 of those were for the PS4, while 412,112 games were sold for Xbox One. Finally, 361,967 games were sold for the Nintendo Switch. In terms of year-on-year percentages, that is a 37% dip for PS4, a 26.7% dip for Xbox One and a 44% rise for Nintendo Switch.

Here are the top ten selling games at UK retail last week:

1. FIFA 20
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
4. Sea of Thieves
5. Minecraft: Xbox Edition
6. Pokemon Sword
7. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe
8. Pokemon Shield
9. Luigi’s Mansion 3
10. Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition

As always, console bundles were a big part of this. Sea of Thieves for instance was bundled with the Xbox One S All Digital edition and there were several Xbox One S bundles containing Minecraft, which have had an impact on the top ten. PS4 console bundles mostly marketed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, although PSVR bundles also saw a rise in VR titles, with Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Skyrim VR, Resident Evil 7 and more re-entering the top 40 sales chart.

While GTA Online updates were enough to keep Grand Theft Auto V in the top ten for years, there doesn’t appear to be the same level of interest in Red Dead Redemption 2, neither of which made it to the top ten last week. Surprisingly, Anthem clawed its way back into the top 40 thanks to a 246% sales increase, while Marvel’s Spider-Man just missed out on another top-ten listing with a 691% sales bump.

KitGuru Says: We don’t have final hardware sales numbers for last week but early indications seem to point towards the Xbox One S All Digital getting a big boost this year. Did any of you pick up some new games or a console last week? 

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