Star Wars Battlefront 2 PS4 PlayStation 4 1

Star Wars Battlefront 2 launched with 60 per cent fewer copies than its predecessor at retail in the UK, sales data has confirmed. The previous entry enjoyed the biggest ever debut for a Star Wars game in Britain, although it did have an extra day to rack up that record compared to the new instalment. It’s also worth mentioning that digital sales have been steadily increasing since 2015, and aren’t factored into these results at all.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to see anything other than a small decline here – it seems that the whole loot box fiasco may have actually hit EA where it hurts. To be fair, the publisher did switch off all in-game purchases prior to release, and it has vowed to update the title to reduce their impact before they're re-introduced. That’s not before the furore became mainstream news, however, breaking out of the industry bubble and landing stories on the BBC and CNN websites.

Elsewhere, this was a great week for new releases, with a couple of fresh Pokémon titles, The Sims 4, L.A. Noire, and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 all breaching the top ten. In addition, Skyrim VR, buoyed by some brilliant bundles, secured the largest third-party PlayStation VR launch to date in 19th position – beating out the heavily promoted Switch edition by several places. The full top ten is included below.

UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 18th November, 2017

  1. Call of Duty: WWII
  2. Star Wars Battlefront 2
  3. FIFA 18
  4. Pokémon Ultra Sun
  5. Pokémon Ultra Moon
  6. Assassin's Creed Origins
  7. The Sims 4
  8. L.A. Noire
  9. Super Mario Odyssey
  10. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2

[source chart-track.co.uk]