
With Black Friday sales dominating the retail space last week, it's unsurprising to learn that the charts have seen a bit of change this time around. Discounted games and those found tucked inside console bundles saw huge leaps across the board as consumers spent £53 million in total on physical gaming products.
FIFA 19 has jumped right back into the UK number one spot this week after being discounted and included inside an appealing PS4 bundle deal. With Nintendo Switch still being a relatively new console, discounts were nowhere near as frequent as on other machines, pushing multiple PS4 and Xbox One titles up several places to dominate the top ten.
Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! fell four places down to eighth (the Eevee version dropped a little further to 18th), but Nintendo's evergreen titles did actually see a very decent rise in sales, even if this didn't result in high chart positioning. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe rose 98% in sales; Super Mario Party rose by 110%, sitting in 24th; Super Mario Odyssey is just below in 25th, also seeing sales rise by 110%; and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild rose by 111%, clinching 38th spot.
Here's a look at this week's top ten all formats chart (physical sales only):
1. (5) FIFA 19
2. (7) Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
3. (2) Red Dead Redemption 2
4. (New) Battlefield V
5. (11) Forza Horizon 4
6. (13) Spider-Man
7. (3) Fallout 76
8. (4) Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu!
9. (1) Spyro Reignited Trilogy
10. (9) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Did you buy any of these chart-topping games this week? Manage to snag any Black Friday bargains? Let us know down below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 84
I think that's a not-too-bad showing for Let's Go Pikachu. Considering it likely wasn't discounted anywhere unlike some of the others.
Nice to see Forza Horizon 4 back in the top 10, I got it last week and it's absolutely fantastic.
Just noticed Fallout 76 beat it though. FML. Why are people still buying that game?
Fallout 76 outsold Nintendo IPs. This was a bad year.
@Grumblevolcano Looks incredible on a One X as well!
@jtmnm Is Fallout76 that bad?
Yus! Spyro survives!
@tillyboo It's class action lawsuit bad.
Honestly, I don't see the wrong in F76 outselling Pokémon Let's Go.
Yeah sure, F76 is a lazy game (but so is Pokémon Let's Go in some ways) with a lot of game breaking bugs, a boring empty world and more negatives. But people are (and should be) free to buy whatever they want to buy.
@jtmnm I believe it was discounted though
Well fallout 76 makes sense. If you don’t follow game news you have no idea the backlash. Not everyone looks at reviews.
It's not surprising Fallout 76 outsold Let's Go. The game had a much greater price-slashing than Let's Go, afaik. Seeing something that's 50% off is much easier to pull the trigger on than, say, a 20% price reduction. Even if the game's reviewing badly, people will a see a price like that and think it's worth a go.
@Praxis @Saego
Fallout 76 outsold Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu. It did not outsell Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu + Eevee.
It's easy to understand, nothing surprising at all. Switch games don't get really important retail discounts (nor digital), whereas competitors offer huge offers both digitally and physically, Black Friday or otherwise.
@westman98 that's not a defence.
Pay very little attention to the chart positions for two main reasons: 1. Pokemon is split between two titles.
2. Battlefield V must have sold at least 250k units - yet it's only 4th. The last time a title sold that many units but only ranked 4th... I suspect it's never happened before?
@IBeAGamer Since Pikachu and Eevee are essentially the same game, it surely is a perfectly reasonable defence. The two combined, both at full price, would have massively outsold a Fallout game that has already seen significant price reductions.
Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu + Eevee and Mario Kart 8 DX sold ~60,000 and ~30,000 copies respectively during Black Friday week in the UK. Pretty huge figures for both games.
The Switch itself sold ~90,000 units during Black Friday week in the UK. Not only does this figure represent YoY growth of ~100% over last year's Black Friday week sales, it is actually higher than the Switch's launch week sales of ~80,000 units.
@nocdaes
Battlefield V sold ~90,000 retail copies at launch in the UK.
@IBeAGamer
????
I'm not defending anything. I'm staying a fact. Fallout 76 didn't outsell Pokemon Let's Go last week in the UK. It did, however, outsell each Pokemon Let's Go SKU individually.
@westman98 Only 90,000?! That can't be right... Are you sure that's all retailers, and not just Amazon? 90,000 would be a disaster!
@nocdaes
Yes I am sure. Battlefield V's retail launch sales were 37% of Battlefield 1's retail launch sales in the UK.
I'm actually quite surprised BFV even managed to sell that much TBH. The game had awful preorder figures prior to launch (lower than Fallout 76).
@IBeAGamer
?????
Not a fan of facts?
@Praxis
Yep, Fallout 76 has had a lot of advertising behind it as well. Will probably go down in video game legend for being so hyped and yet so bad apparently.
Anyone surprised that a game on PS4 and XB1 outsells a Switch game needs to remember how big he combined user base of the former is compared to the latter.
@westman98 90k units. I mean that's nothing short of a disaster for EA. That and Hitman 2 have really suffered at the hands of Red Dead 2
@electrolite77 Yep, I agree. Also, I think it massively underestimates the power and popularity of the Fallout franchise. Whether it's a strong entry or not, the name alone picks up sales.
@Praxis @electrolite77 @frabbit Fallout 76 was massively reduced on PS Store which for a game that’s a few weeks old shows how badly it is doing.
Also, I saw the “wouldn’t it be nice” commercial for the game about 100 times across various website and YouTube so they clearly threw tons of marketing at it.
Fallout ‘76 is also a multi-platform title so it’s not surprising. I played the beta and honestly it was just as bad as you can imagine. Between CoD, Battlefield, Assassin’s Greed, and this “Fallout” game I’m really glad to have a Nintendo platform and play games that were made to bring joy.
@Kienda Considering Black Friday is one of, if not the, busiest period on the PlayStation Store, surely the Fallout price cut was agreed and scheduled long before the game released? If you release your game this close to Black Friday, then you have to factor in a deal or you'll get left for dead, surely? (No question it hasn't sold as well as many anticipated/ hoped, but I'm not sure they are cutting digital prices because of it. The physical cuts will be a mixture of planned promos and pressure from retail who don't want to end up sat on a lot of slow moving stock).
Pokemon at 8th slot at second week is pretty weak. Switch isn't doing very well in UK..... Guess only 5% of Fifa sales are Switch. I think Switch is too expensive and need better marketing, more games and more discounts. Playstation store discounts blow Nintendo out of the water
@Kienda Bethesda have got to be taking a good long look at themselves in the mirror right now... Or maybe not I suppose, since the game is selling, discounted or not.
@nocdaes UK isn't even the biggest gaming market in Europe. And if we keep in mind that we already know that Battlefield V didn't do that well, yeah 90000 seems appropriate.
@nocdaes I'm not sure if that's the case. You may be right, I just don't know.
But say you're right, and Bethesda had the discounted Black Friday price for Fallout 76 planned well in advance... does that not say something worse about the game? That says to me that Bethesda knew they were on to a loser. I mean, they could have released it a couple weeks earlier - not like it would have been any more broken if they had.
@electrolite77 The worst part about Fallout76 is the fact that the ad campaign is better than the game itself.
@NotTelevision gotta wonder why you accuse Ubisoft/Assassin's Creed of greed but not CoD. 😂
@Praxis
😀😀
I was just going to say exactly that. I like the ad, it catches my attention constantly. Shame the game is awful.
@dimi
See post #18
Not shocked . The majority of deals i saw were ps4 or xbox games few switch games. Mainly console bundles.
@Kienda
Yeah I saw it constantly on YouTube.
FIFA 19 has been heavily discounted in the U.K. recently. It was £25 in Tesco and they sold out. Everywhere else went to £30. Probably similar to 18 on the Switch in that it only started selling once they cut the price.
@westman98 how do you know the actual units sold? is there a source that shows this (just interested)?
@In_Ex_Fan UK is the biggest market in Europe, period. Germany and France come close on some sectors (PC for Germany and Switch for France) but because the UK is strong on PS4, XOne and Switch it's significantly ahead overall. Mobile is also much bigger.
90,000 units week one for any AAA release is a poor performance. For context, last year's Call of Duty did over 600k physical units in the UK, week one. Even Star Wars Battlefront 2 did 170k units. FIFA regularly does 1.2 million in its opening week. Does Battlefield compare to these titles, well no, it doesn't... but it should be hitting at least 200k!
Red Dead Redemption 2 has sucked out a lot of money from the market (clearly impacting Hitman 2 too). Spider-man's strong performance had an impact too (particularly on Tomb Raider's number).
@frabbit Publisher's know the quality of their product in advance for sure. I think it's unlikely they wanted to release the title so close to Black Friday. Likewise with Hitman 2. Why would you put your shiny new game on a shelf at retail alongside FIFA and Call of Duty which are selling at half the price? You'll get fans buying your title, but the broader gamers are going to go for the half price game every single time. It suggests the development cycle forced them into a terrible release window, and their financial year meant they had to go with it... Not to mention the fact that delaying into Q1 is hardly an attractive option with the crazy amount of AAA titles currently launching then (no doubt themselves happy to avoid Red Dead Redemption 2!).
It's the classic rock and a hard place... but I think if you know your game is coming out so close to Black Friday, irrespective of quality and forecast, you have to factor in a discount or some way to get stand out on the shelf against a plethora of decent, competitively priced games!
@frabbit
Yeah it’s selling now. You wonder how much impact it will have in the long term though. FO4 wasn’t exactly well optimised and now 76 is a mess. They may have just killed a golden goose.
@nocdaes the performance of Battlefield V isn't surprising at all. Every single bit of news about it was negative. The delay, marketing backlash, EAs ongoing image problems. Probably all reasons why people opted for CoD instead. The release so long after Black Ops 4 must have hurt the most.
@frabbit Well, they warned people that there would be "spectacular issues" with 76. So. Yeah. They knew what they were onto.
@In_Ex_Fan Yep, Activision have definitely benefited from going early with Call of Duty.
I already own RDR2, Spiderman and Lets Go Pikachu.
The only game I bought over black friday was Kerbal Space Program for the One X. I did get a 400gb card for my Switch though.
@In_Ex_Fan Ohhh I don’t. CoD is even worse. They pulled a Warner Bros. /Square Enix move and through the worse micro transactions in there after the publications reviewed the game. At least Ubisoft told everyone they grind upward or pay before the game released.
@nocdaes while I’m sure those battlefield 5 numbers aren’t great you have to remember that it’s had a staggered release and has been available to some people for 2 weeks. Hardcore battlefield players had probably already picked it up. The numbers are def down though
@In_Ex_Fan Yeah, true. Forgot about that weird ass letter to the fans. The thing is, I don't doubt they'll continue to work hard on the game, and this time next year it will likely be a much tidier version if not an entirely different beast but the reviews I've read though all say it's the core game that's just not very fun. Wonder how they'll address that.
@Mr_Pepperami Yep, good point.
@NotTelevision ah okay. Then I've said nothing. 😉
@frabbit The core problem won't change. And that's the creation engine. A lot of the problems are caused by it. And the lack of content/boring content is something they can fix. It just takes time. Question is if people Wil give it a shot when that time comes. Or even a second shot.
@Saego “free to buy whatever they want to buy.”
Assuming they have the $60 of course
This is UK, not much of a surprise.
@In_Ex_Fan Considering Skyrim still sells like gangbusters, I think ESVI will be fine. That is unless Starfield as well is a total mess. Bethesda needs to take their time with those two titles and maybe do a Fallout NV and get an external developer to do a new Fallout in the meantime to give them some time.
@Wexter Compared to this mess Skyrim is a masterpiece, thought. Bethesda is capable of delivering great games. But they really need to get rid of the Creation Engine. Otherwise their titles will always be at least a bit messy. And that won't do anymore after 76.
@FlimFlam that's implied with the word "buying" isn't it? Otherwise it would be stealing. 😉
@SuperGhirahim64
Except Nintendo isn’t something most people grew up with in the UK. Their struggle for mindshare here (which is improving greatly with the Switch) is down to historical ineptitude on their part. Their handling of all their home systems up to the Wii was woeful.
thats strange. Some retailer tracking site said God of War was the biggest game over Black Friday...but its not even on this top list?
Glad to see Forza Horizon 4 is doing so well. I think that's the first time a Microsoft exclusive has tracked that high since the 360.
How in the heck is 76 outselling Pokemon? How is 76 outselling, honestly, even the worst shovelware around? It's a broken empty game, with no gameplay in it, and not an ounce of fun to be found unless you make it yourself. The thing needs to be completely redesigned Realm Reborn style with a replacement game with NPCs etc. added in. And maybe that will happen. But not in 2018.
I get that not everyone reads the gaming news, but that one is such a big disaster even "casuals" should have heard the noise. All that being said, I wouldn't have thought the Fallout fanbase would consist of many "casuals who don't read gaming news" at all....Fallout itself seems to consist of the niche of the hardcore gamers even more than TES. I can not imagine why people are still buying it. I got suckered in with a preorder.....but why on earth would anyone spend that money willingly after the damage reports? It's got to be the single worst video game I've ever attempted to play. It's so bad it made me switch to a legit MMO. I can find redeeming qualities for "some" type of player in almost any game...but 76 has me drawing a blank. I can't imagine anyone that actually would find much fun in there other than people with a group of friends making their own fun....in which case there are far better games for that. It's not even Fallout, a generic micromanagement survival sim with a Fallout skin. I expected it would do well on name and marketing, but outselling big games during one of the biggest Q4's is just depressing. The industry will get the message that bad, broken games are more profitable than quality games. At least until that thinking bankrupts another 1/4 the industry (again.)
@frabbit The problem with these failure games is that the sales impact doesn't hit the first title, it hits the next title. People don't know the well liked game crashed and burned when they buy the next one, they learn their lesson, the brand is diminished, and they delay ore refuse to buy it after that until they hear it's better. Final Fantasy went through that. FFXIII sold amazing because it was a new FF and everyone had faith, even though it was getting panned right and left. Needless to say XIII-2 was one of the lowest selling FFs ever. The bad game sells well, the next one sells bad because of it even if it's good. This tends to create all kinds of trouble as investors then get the wrong ideas and apply the wrong pressure. The incentive is to make games like the bad ones that are profitable rather than the good ones that are not, without understanding the bad ones are what make the good ones not sell. Bethesda REALLY screwed themselves, and the damage won't be visible for years.
@Mando44646 I thought NL just did an article about how Pokemon was the best selling game, "outsold by laptops"?
With the exception of RDR2 and Spider-Man, I've seen far more advertising for Fallout 76 than any other game, which is funny given all the bad press.
If those games weren't massively discounted unlike the Nintendo games - I highly doubt they would sell as good as they did. That doesn't mean they were good games but sold off as Lost is more likely. So the title of this story is highly Massive MISLEADING at best.
There was a store on Facebook yesterday selling Switch consoles for $180. In sure that bumped Switch sales numbers.
Best black Friday sales I saw here in the U.S. was Wal-Mart accidently selling Doom and Diablo 3 Switch for $17. Then a bunch of evergreens being $35.
Glad to see Forza up there. Best driving game I have played in years.
Starlink $39 (switch)
Lego the Incredibles $19 (switch)
Assassin Creed $35 (ps4)
Darksiders 3 $36 (pc)
I had a great Black Friday 👍
@electrolite77 It's a fact but needing two games to outsell one isn't a defence.
@TeslaChippie you're right. GoW was #5 and Pokemon was #4. I misremembered (https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/11/pokemon_lets_go_was_the_fourth_best-selling_product_this_black_friday_according_to_us_report)
Still confused how GoW isn't represented in this chart as a result though
Why has Chart Track yet to update? Still has last weeks chart.
@westman98 'This'. Still waiting for the more insightful Gfk Chart-Track sales for this week. They usually go up on a Monday, but not this week.
@dimi or maybe nintendo consoles just aren't as popular in the UK, like how it's been for decades now? And no, considering the switch is cheaper than even the Wii U when it released, it isn't "too expensive". Unless you're dirt poor or don't have any extra spending money that's a stupid argument.
@SuperGhirahim64
A vast proportion of the DS audience went to smart phones. Same with the Wii. There will be some who carried over but the Wii U did a lot to ruin any nostalgia for Nintendo.
Switch is doing very well for a Nintendo home system though.
@IBeAGamer
I still don’t understand why you think it has to be a defence against anything. Pokemon outsold Fallout 76 despite the later having a much bigger user base to aim for. Pokemon has 2 SKUs that combined outsold all the different Fallout 76 SKUs (Standard, Tricentennial, Power Armour, Build your Own Pip Boy etc) across 3 formats. It’s not about defence, it’s just true.
@Agramonte @Royalblues @NEStalgia @Grumblevolcano
Agree with all of you on Horizon 4. Absolutely brilliant game. Amazingly, even better than the first 3.
@SuperGhirahim64
Bow out of the U.K.? Can’t see it. Even allowing for previous outsourcing and inadequate performance they’ve always made a lot of money out of their handhelds here, a market they now have to themselves.
@Royalblues
FM7 is good, think it’s abailable pretty cheap these days. Not a big sim head myself but have enjoyed what I’ve played. Personally I’d say 3 is the weakest of the Horizons though I suspect plenty will disagree. It still a fine, fine game that’ll probably be very cheap by the time you’re done with 4.
Already had Pikachu. Ordered an XBox One for $180 with Minecraft. Couldn’t pass up that price. Also got Forza for $30.
@electrolite77 Don't bother with IBeAGamer. I seen his comments on Push Square before and they reek of being a Xbox fanboy and keyboard warrior as one person say. I would advise not talking to him before it turns into a flame war.
@SuperGhirahim64
Ah I see. My mistake. Seems unlikely but as you say, who knows.
This seems like great news for Pokemon Let's Go, as far as I'm aware it wasn't actually on sale (per the price, no discount), so that's good per the numbers and profit
@DeltaPeng and that's what is missed in the story. Comparing massive discounted games to make them sell as oppose to Pokemon that wasn't discounted. Leads to bad press and bias.
@Jeremyjones12992 price drop its not a stupid argument at all. When the PlayStation 2 (best selling console of all time) price dropped in June 2002 to $199 (-100$) sales skyrocketed to a then-record 690,000 units.
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