UK Sales Charts: FIFA 18 Tightens Its Grip on Championship Spot

I don't know how much of an impact Digital sales would make in the charts. I can see the 'sales' figures overall appearing lower but I would imagine that the digital' sales wouldn't make much difference in the positions. At most they may swap a position or two around - where a game is more popular digitally than physically.

If the average digital sales make up 30% of sales, then that's still going to keep the positions relatively similar. I can imagine that something like Fifa would be a game more people would buy physical as they can trade it in when they are bored or the next one comes along. As I recall, Shops like GAME, CEX etc often have so many 2nd user Fifa games compared to other titles. Therefore I can see that having a lower than average digital sale percentage.

I am not surprised to see Forza 7 at 2 but a little surprised to see FH3 at 3. Personally I prefer the more 'arcade and open world of FH3 to FM7. I wonder if that's seeing a resurgence as those looking to next months 'X' buy it for the 4k upgrade?

I know Destiny 2 has been out a month now, but I still expected that to be higher. It did get a lot of praise and has much more appeal to the more casual audience and its also selling on multiple formats - unlike the 2 directly above it. I guess FM7 is 'new' and Destiny has certainly come in for criticism as more and more people reach the 'end' of the content and find its far more lacking than D1 was at the same point in time. At the very least, you still had the grind to unlock all your sub-classes abilities as well as upgrade your weapons to the 'max'. You had daily bounties and a daily mission to help as well as trying to grind for 'Strange Coins' for Xurs next visit and the necessary planetary resources to upgrade. Now all that's removed and there is nothing to buy either (or at least worth buying - only 'green' weapons) so no need to grind for in-game currency...

Anyway that's a bit off topic but maybe that's also contributing to its 'fall'

Damn!! Crash N Sane Trilogy still strong!!!

@get2sammyb Maybe Destiny has dropped because of a higher percentage of digital sales. I would have thought that 'Fifa and the Forza games offer that 'replayability' too. The overall sales across the board though would still not vary too much although could see a 'downwards' trend in overall sales figures but each 'game' will still have a similar percentage of digital purchases. I can't imagine that 4-5wks after launch, the physical sales are dropping radically because those that hadn't bought Destiny were more inclined to buy it digitally. I wouldn't be surprised if the balance between digital and physical sales remain 'relatively' consistent in the 'early weeks but as time moves on, maybe a bigger trend towards physical purchases because of the inevitable price drops that Physical often sees. I know Digital sales can have 'spikes' with price drops and sales but I don't believe that Destiny 2 is seeing a bigger trend towards Digital sales now than at launch and therefore affecting its chart position compared to say Fifa or Forza - both of these offer so much replayability too. Point is, Digital sales figures will still be in play for the games around it so just because say 30% of Destiny's sales were 'digital' this week, doesn't mean that all the other games weren't selling ~30% digitally either.

Maybe the first 'week' of sales could favour Physical thanks to the numerous limited/special editions but settle down over the subsequent weeks into a more uniform pattern - say 30% digital and 70% Physical with the odd spike with sales. The week that PS+ or Gold offer a sale, a spike in digital sales but then settle back into its 'normal' pattern until the next sale.

As for FH3, I can see how a bundle may have helped - not that I was aware there was 'new' one as I thought MS had bundled this a year ago - its not like I am looking to buy an XB1s as I have one and buying Project Scorpio next month anyway. I thought the 'newest' Xbox was Mincraft inspired. I don;t know why its suddenly jumped back up as I was sure FH3 has been bundled for months so why in particular this month and not last month or the preceding months if being 'bundled' was the main reason. Like I said, I thought the game was bundled with Xbox months ago - maybe even as far back as last September. If that is the case, then surely it would have 'remained' high every month - unless there has been a big positive shift in MS console sales this month.

Anyway, I can also see why that may be purchased separately too as its one of the best MS exclusives and its getting enhanced. I can see Witcher 3 making its way back up the charts too for the same reason - although not specifically just the 'X' as its also enhanced for Pro too.

It'll be interesting to see Evil Within 2 goes as I guess there won't be any reviews till after launch

@get2sammyb
Especially thinking I had to buy destiny three times last cycle. For destiny for sure digital is the way to go.

@get2sammyb - there's no way the drop in uk sales for destiny can be accounted for by digital sales imo. total physical sales in week 1 for PS4/XB1 combined were less than for destiny on just PS4, and that's before you factor in the number of consoles since destiny launched has increased by almost 400%. the digital/physical split would have to massively favour psn/xbl and i just can't see it in the uk which tends to have a much more competitive retail market than other regions. £55 digital or £40 on blu-ray and if you use the right retailer you'd probably get it before release.. same for FIFA.. £60 on psn?. unless you're getting it for multiple consoles within the same household, it'd be daft not to go for the disc version..

if anything i think people got turned off by the nature of the first destiny game, and the second appears to be more of the same that did nothing to convince those people that it was worth another shot..