UK chart data is now in for the week ending 28th March, revealing that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has fallen from its triumphant first-place debut into third.
Nintendo's life sim saw its week-on-week sales plummet by 81% at retail, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and FIFA 20 both saw boosts to last week's figures to help them regain first and second respectively. Gamesindustry.biz notes that Nintendo Switch game sales fell "across the board" this week, likely thanks to stock issues with the Switch console itself.
That's not to say that the UK games market has dried up, though. Physical sales have actually been performing rather well, even with game stores closing in recent weeks to combat the spread of coronavirus; Gamesindustry.biz says that compared to the week before Animal Crossing released, boxed game sales were up 124% this time around.
Here's a look at this week's top ten all formats chart:
| Last Week | This Week | |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare |
| 4 | 2 | FIFA 20 |
| 1 | 3 | Animal Crossing: New Horizons |
| 2 | 4 | Doom Eternal |
| 8 | 5 | Forza Horizon 4 |
| 6 | 6 | Grand Theft Auto V |
| 7 | 7 | Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy |
| 9 | 8 | Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled |
| 18 | 9 | Spyro Reignited Trilogy |
| 10 | 10 | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
[Compiled by GFK]
Did you buy any of these chart-topping games this week? Let us know down below.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 82
Perhaps everyone just wanted (needed) it so bad they bought it the first week
To be fair, third is still pretty great, not to mention I recall hearing that New Horizon's debut sales were greater than the combined launch sales of all the previous titles here in the UK.
Maybe Tom Nook isn't giving enough loans out right now.
What I find amazing is how AC can 'plummet' by 81% of it's sales and still remain in the top 3.
Still beat Doom guy at least Isabelle celebrates with a party popper!
Well it's 1st week sales were very high, so dropping to 3rd isn't bad. Especially when there are Switch shortages as you mentioned.
The physical edition of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is mostly sold out as well.
Word got out about the borked multiplayer.
Don't @ me.
#3 in charts, #1 in our hearts.
Glad, but not surprised, to see Crash is still making the charts!
Most shoos are shut and very few supermarkets carry Nintendo stuff. Its a bad month for everyone.
I wish people wouldn't keep buying rehashed COD and FIFA every single goddamn year! Sheep mentality......don't get me started on the rip off that is Ultimate team!!
I bought it yesterday... in the US eStore. Very dramatic article titled by the way. 💁♂️
The staying power of GTA V is insane. It's now nearly 7 years old and still in the top 10.
Call of Duty and Fifa: Non games have joined the discussion.
@gcunit Telling me not to do something is a good way to make sure I do
Don’t know how it is in the rest of the world, but here in Norway, no store has it in stock at the moment, so buying it would be rather difficult.
Anticipated console exclusive sees sales drop after great opening weeks. Falls to 3/10. Nintendoomed.
GTA V back where it belongs in the UK charts at no. 6. Everything is fine in the world.
@BigBluePanda Pretty sure that's exactly why this has happened. It's still #1 in the eShop charts and I don't believe digital sales are counted here
Well it's probably hard to keep it in first place if everyone bought it last week
Third place is still great.
"plummeting" by 81% and remaining in 3rd place is what I call grand success.
Anyway, there's both physical game and console shortages atm. It makes sense.
UK is also notorious for having very bad taste in games (evident by fifa, cod being at the top despite the games barely associating with the word "effort" for the past many years). Nintendo games and games that don't involve a metric ton of warfare, gore, blood, or guns typically just don't sell as well as they'd do in many other countries.
Regardless of how ACNH does overall, I'll forever be thankful to the creators. They're the reason I'm finally after a decade playing a game with my fiancée regularly.
And ACNH is very enjoyable.
I bet digital sales are through the roof though.
@LavaTwilight and still ahead of multi platform DOOM Eternal, also in its second week of release.
I think the digital sales would have skyrocketed
I've been trying to buy AC for a week now (physical) but everywhere it's sold out - unless you want to £70+ to a**holes
Those sales numbers of GTA V... Smells fishy...
Which shops were open last week? I thought everything was closed.
@JamesR webshops are usually still open.
I'm loving animal crossing and I never bought the 3ds version. Very addictive indeed. They need a battle royale fishing mode on new horizons. A massive map and time limit... Most valued fishes win?
I have a feeling it'll see a big increase in sales once Switch systems are back on store shelves. I have many friends who wanted to buy a Switch just for this game, and you can't find a new Switch at most stores within 50 miles of my city.
I got it digital yesterday. Had to delete pretty much my entire library of saved games and such (Man, do I need an SD card now!!), but it was worth it.
I really wanted physical, but those were all sold out, and I wanted to get going anyways in these trying quarantined times, but as my son said "Well, now we don't have to switch the cartridges around." Ugh, today's youth...
Yeah, um, there's a god damn PANDEMIC. People can't even go out and play sports anymore (at least where I live)... and I'm sorry, but Animal Crossing ain't "essential" like food and medicine are.
Note to Nintendo: This is the entire point of digital sales. Hopefully, the eShop will be transformed into something that isn't a complete dumpster fire by the tike this all blows over.
Until then, relax and have a pint. This too shall pass...
That may be down to the game being out of stock in many places, and the fact that many who wanted the game bought it immediately at launch.
I was understand the impression by the Internet that everyone but me had a copy of this game already, leaving nobody left to buy it.
@Anri02 Ok, but don't send £10 to https://www.paypal.me/gcunit
@gcunit
@Anri02 Defiance!
this isn’t really a bad thing because the game sold 2 million in 3 days in japan. I imagine US sales were probably double, or triple that. Worldwide sales for this game are probably sitting at a minimum of 5-6 million right now, possibly more.
@gcunit Sorry, reverse psychology doesn’t work on me. Also I don’t posses that bizarre currency
@Alpha-2002 A pint from my own private brewery?!
@Anri02 Defiant defiance. PayPal does this magic thing called currency conversion.
The title of the article is a bit apocalyptic isn’t it? A disappointing week for Nintendo? It dropped 2 places in the middle of the worst health crisis in a generation! Hardly a disappointment! An overachievement considering the Switch is all but sold out across the world. The majority of Switch owners have probably got the game already so if you can’t buy a new switch you can’t buy the game!!
Disappointing week my ar3e
@Jayofmaya Who’s this pay guy and why should he be my pal?
I will eventually get AC, but not in a rush...backlog is a real issue
@F1R3F1Y what scan? It is to my understanding that the multiplayer has always been that way.
Closed stores and the fact that everyone bought it the first week and obviously doesn't need more copies might have something to do with it.
People saying it is because of multiplayer need to get a grip... the situation sucks, but the average consumer is not going to care about it very much at all. Maybe the drop has something to do with an international virus and shutdowns?
Cod and fifa are both Multiplatform, so of course they’d be at the “top”! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an Exclusive to Nintendo Switch, so still being in third place is outstanding!!!! Call of duty is so overrated, but again kids nowadays prefer simple shooters!
It’s sold out pretty much everywhere and it’s rather more likely that a supermarket will stock FIFA and COD. That would pretty much explain it, I think.
@MS7000 Like iirc it was confirmed to have sold some thing like 3.5 times the amount of sales of the original game which was itself apparently a good seller for the franchise?
In times of crisis, folk revert to type. Football and shooting back at the top of the charts lol.
The physical version is sold out everywhere here
To be fair the UK is in lockdown so physical sales are going to largely fall as people choose digital instead.
Probably THE most overstated headline from the site yet. Ridiculous. How about doing some real reporting and chase down numbers for digital sales, how many cancelled physical and downloaded instead, follow up on reported physical shortages, check out the surge of resellers and price gouging?
At the end of the day, none of this matters as the game has sold insanely well and will continue to do so. Painting these sales numbers as some sort of massive failing is poor journalism. Tabloid headlines.
And are you absolutely kidding me? Reporting that physical sales were up from before the launch of several AAA titles as if it were a revelation? 'Physical sales up after big games launch before/at the start of massive lockdowns and quarantines around the globe'... You don't say! wow.
@Franz I love this reply!
Lack of Switch supply is starting to become a serious issue across the globe, not just in Japan.
@cfgk24 Someone had to say the truth!
The lower sales could be explained by the game simply not being available at retail in many places, there's apparently a shortage of ACNH across the UK:
https://gonintendo.com/stories/358179-animal-crossing-new-horizons-facing-stock-shortages-in-the-uk
@gcunit
A Nintendo game thats not splatoon 2 with borked multiplayer ?!
Say it aint so!
And dropping from first spot to third, is an disaster of epic proportions or something.
Anything for an article.
@jarvismp
There are more than 50 million Switches in the world (granted some people have more than one)
The majority of owners def do not have ACNH
I do agree with the rest of your math
7 million units sold worldwide sounds about right
My 1st thought was that the pandemic has slowed down Sony and MS's launch into the next generation. Even if they still release this year, many things they had planned will be behind schedule. This would effectively prolong the Switch's life, pushing back a Pro or 2 version for a while.
However, the situation is actually hurting Nintendo the most. These shortages are a huge issue for the company. This was the year for them to push out games and expand the user base as much as possible prior to the new generation to stay relevant. Animal crossing 's bs of 1 file/console was designed to move units and it is now unable to do so. Even though scalpers are obviously not part of the company, they do reflect bad on them because they leave a nasty taste on families.
Now is the time for the company to push out as much software as possible. However, in arrogance I have yet to see a 1st party sale (obviously not referring to ACNH). Square capitalized on this moment with the sale they just had and multiple other developers did as well, yet Nintendo refuses to budge because they believe people will continue to buy them at their regular price. When the economic situation at home worsens from this crisis they will see their numbers completely tank.
"At retail" ... key words. Many shops are closed because of China flu hysteria, so of course retail sales will have dropped after the first week. How many units did Nintendo move digitally? That's what I want to know.
@Ryan Craddock You really need to correct your journalism ethic. Everyone else reports there are shortages on UK about this specific game, yet, you choose a title that says that sales are disappointing. You basically lie on your title and when you lie you aren't a good reporter.
Makes me sad to see COD and FIFA at the top...
Nothing against those games, but it baffles me how they are so dominant endlessly...
And it's also my annoyance because those companies refuse to release quality titles on Switch. Activision refusing to publish a COD game at all on the console and EA brazenly shipping inferior products lacking entire game modes and features.
Not surprised. What a dull, turgid grind it is.
I love how after an 81% drop, it's still at third. 😀 Just more proof at how amazing New Horizons sold.
These kinds of drops are natural in week 2 and beyond though, it doesn't help with this pandemic going on either. I still think AC and Doom for that matter are holding up well.
That is incredibly sad CoD and FIFA knocked it down. Oh well, one day these hobbyists will exit the gaming world when a new dad takes over their lives.
@sid77 The new Modern Warfare is fantastic.
As expected last week.
80% is a very standard second week drop.
The sales have probably gone down because the price of the game has gone up. From £60 to almost £90. (Check the Game website for proof)
Its..um....sold out. Lol, what gives with that title? We expect better from Nintendolife
I work at Target and I easily got 50 calls a day asking if we had either the physical version of animal crossing or Nintendo switch in stock - we had neither since the day after release of animal crossing. It's definitely a stock problem.
A game that you cannot buy cannot stay in first place. It is sold out everywhere in Germany. And dealers who have it charge a surcharge at the regular price.
Not sure I want Animal Crossing but think I would get it digital as it's the kind of game for dipping in and out of. Don't really have the time for it with my backlog.
@scoobdoo Edgy.
@Ronovsky is this where I apologize to you for having a different opinion about a video game?
@scoobdoo How would I know?
@ryancraddock is there a chart for this week going up anytime soon?
@Otoemetry We haven't heard anything yet sadly. It's unusual for a week to go by without new data, so we'll keep an eye out and post an article if/when it appears.
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