Insomniac Games' reign at the top of the physical UK sales chart has been brought to an end as Mario Golf: Super Rush tees off in first place, pushing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart down into third. The PlayStation 5 exclusive spent the past two weeks in the top spot, but a 78 per cent drop in sales brings it more in line with the usual purchasing patterns that games experience as they grow older. Don't forget the lombax actually increased its physical sales in the second week of availability, which was largely contributed to hardware bundles and positive word of mouth.
The only other new entry this week is Scarlet Nexus, which debuts in eighth. It sold best on PlayStation, with PS5 accounting for 58 per cent of sales and PS4 pulling in 21 per cent. That's close to four of every five copies sold being the versions for Sony platforms. The rest of the top 10 makes for the usual reading: Nintendo Switch exclusives are prominent and titles like FIFA 21 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla fill in the gaps.
Interestingly, Cyberpunk 2077 experienced a 374 per cent jump in sales to see it place in 22nd. The RPG's return to the PS Store won't have affected the purchasing spike since these stats only track physical goods, but maybe the chatter around its comeback influenced general mindshare.
Here's the latest top 10 in full.
UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 26th June 2021
- Mario Golf: Super Rush
- FIFA 21
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Minecraft (Switch)
- Scarlet Nexus
- Ring Fit Adventure
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 92
I genuinely do not understand how those half hearted Nintendo games keep selling so well.
@thechetearly It’s a me, Mario
@AgentGuapo 🏆
@thechetearly
The Switch (and other Nintendo platforms) have much less third party support than the other platforms. The result is first party titles have a much bigger impact.
I'm glad i waited for a good price but Returnal is my GOTY already. Hopefully it smashes the digital sales at £52.50 and Sony get the message.
@mrtennis1990 yeah, you wont regret it. It's a banger!
Lol for Scarlet Nexus, Xbox has been pushing it hard, I'm sure Sony thanks them for the sales boost
@thechetearly I think every uncle to grandma to some traveler to some tourist feels it safe to buy these Mario & co games for the kids or anyone of any age, and it's mostly physical at that. Yea Rift Apart is for everyone but there are more Switches out there than PS5s. Most gamers buying M+ games are more than likely buying digitally for themselves which isn't being accounted for in these charts.
I’m one of the idiots that bought Mario Golf. Worst game in the series by a mile. Stay away.
@TheArt that and there are two new next gen digital console on the market.
@mrtennis1990 because more money is actual made off of each digital.
@uptownsoul @mrtennis1990 very different ecosystem. I don't think many Xbox buyers are customers very interested in physical games. Their mass market priced console doesn't have a physical drive at all, and their enthusiast console is grounded by it's mostly digital features and services. A physical Xbox market definitely exists, boy I don't think it represents most of their customers..... Xbox kind of embodies what the mythical Steambox was supposed to be and never was.
Anecdotally, I was all Nintendo and PlayStation when I had crummy internet (though I liked my 360 the prior gen when I realized PS3 was junk for any third party game). I treated myself to an x1x as a celebration for getting good internet to be my all digital console. I ended up enjoying the digital life enough I went all digital on PS4 and rebought my library on PSN sales.
@thechetearly As a life long Nintendo fan since the NES launched though present.....I 120% agree. It's clearly a Nintendo run by the investors these days. Then again that same criticism can be applied to Playstation in different ways. Between that, Aces, ACNH.... They just release so many bare bones minimal effort games at full price and everyone laps it up. I suppose why SHOULD they bother trying if they get the money anyway?
@SoulChimera Worse than World Tour?
@thechetearly Mario. That's the reason
I actually don't know how good the game is but it being a Mario game guarantees revenue. Even Mario Tennis Aces made bank and it was just a slightly better Ultra Smash
@thechetearly Do you people on this site always have to be salty when Nintendo gets highlighted? It’s selling well and people are enjoying it. Sheesh.
@Akurusu they also get salty when Xbox is highlighted. For some reason some PS fans feels the only way for them to enjoy PS games is to see the competition fail. 🤷
Why are some people surprised? Pokémon snap was the best seller for two weeks lol
@thechetearly first party Ninty games do well no matter what. Even on WiiU that was a failure, their first party games sold incredibly well. Zelda had over 100% attach rate when the console launched. Basically, when you buy a Ninty console, you buy the exclusives, while with other consoles, like PS4/ XB1 you buy it for all sorts of reasons (even just FIFA or COD).
@Akurusu didn't take long for the "you say something negative about a company so you must be salty" comments to appear.
@Tharsman gotta love ASSumptions.
What? seriously? Mario Golf Super Rush is one of the most bare bones games I have played in years. It needs more Content badly.
Atm it's just crap, sorry but it is and how it got to number one is beyond me.
@thechetearly Usually Switch games are great quality but Mario Golf? not so much.
@naruball there were no names but if you insist to raise your hand.
@SoulChimera It just needs more Content. As it is now I agree worst Mario Golf in the series so far.
@TheFrenchiestFry For me, easily the worst in the series. As I’ve said in other threads. It feels like 3 people slapped it together in a couple of months.
@Loftimus Glad to see you gave it a shot and are enjoying Returnal my friend.
Crazy how much affect the Playstation has on the market. Influencing Cyperpunk 2077 on the physical side of things with such a spike although the whole trouble was about the digital front.
Playstation say, people do.
Hopefully that results into a bump in CD Projekts stocks too. I want to get rid of them so badly.
And Ratchet still going strong in its third week is amazing. My GotY
@uptownsoul ResE makes sense because it's a series with a long playstation association, so there's a built in market for the series here. Similar for FF, KH, MH (though split with Nintendo now) etc. Obviously the massive PS4 install base contributes, but if the PS5 only base is outnumbering it so significantly on a game highlighted in the second e3 week show for ms I'm not sure the difference. I'm curious what the breakdown is by region rather than globally. Ie, Xbox isn't very present in Asia, the strongest location for such games yet, while ps is relatively big there. Maybe some are waiting for inevitable game pass participation (it was a game that took the whole closing segment of the second e3 week show for Xbox.... That smells a lot like game pass discussion.)
Again, anecdotally, I'm the target audience for such a game, and I haven't dipped in yet, despite that I'd probably play on Xbox since I now buy my third party games there.... But I'm mired in switch RPGs at the moment (mh stories, twewy2 upcoming (yes I know it's on ps as well), nocturne... Still haven't touched ys9.... I'm still blowing too much time on MH Rise! Basically all the rpgs that come to switch I get them there as a handheld.... That's taken a bite out of games I used to buy on ps.
people like to think that these things mean there's no relative demand for Japanese games on Xbox, but I see tons of interest and demand from within the internet fandom, anyway. For western audiences. But I can't speak for Asia, or mass market (do they even like Japanese games?)
I personally want to see much more parity between consoles as far as Japanese devs go. It took Falcom like 30 years to take Nintendo seriously..... Still waiting on Atlus to notice Xbox senpai.
@Subsided
Yeah I noticed that too. Microsoft keeps trying to push anime games on the Xbox but people just don't want to play them on that console for whatever reason. Then again, when you are given so many free games why would you go out and buy anything?
A quick Google search and one of the top questions is "Is Scarlet Nexus coming to Gamepass?" That's the double edged sword they're going to have to deal with now. If I was a developer and I couldn't get my game on Gamepass I'd start having second thoughts if nobody was going to buy it.
@JAMes-BroWWWn
Yes. I understand PlayStation is more than ever the 'champion' for physical games and its going to be even more significant as time goes.
I'm not sure why the Nintendo sales are still doing well on retail. I do buy physical for it too but I'm not sure what people motives are.
I hope physical market stays strong for all. Probably the nostalgia in me and the good old time of used games shopping.
@NEStalgia the problem, and @uptownsoul is alluding to this isn’t that “It’s a Japanese game” but rather any software attachment rate in the UK is much lower on Xbox. At least, I think that’s what they are getting at. Anyway it doesn’t have anything to do with it being a Japanese game Hitman 3 for instance was only 27% as well. It’s the software attachment rate of all games not just Japanese ones.
The Nintendo Switch keeps killing it in the charts each week! Well done Nintendo!
@uptownsoul The supply constrained PS5 version sold almost 3 times more than the PS4 version. That is more surprising than Xbox sales which are almost always low due to what I assume is the "it will eventually be on Game Pass" factor.
@mousieone ahh, UK charts, I was thinking global. Isn't that pretty much expected in the UK? There's really only been one console there since Sega shuttered. Both Nintendo and Xbox only recently started making any meaningful inroads there at all. It'll get theire but it'll take more than 7 months of meaningful competition.
Beyond quality of either games, there are lots of people that own a Switch in the UK.
How many PS5’s are there? Forty Three and a half at best?
@Tharsman How ironic. I was making a general point. You clearly need to work on your reading comprehension or focus on the youtube comment section more, where "you so salty" comments belong.
@NEStalgia didn't Wii do extremely well in the UK? There were signs everywhere "Wii out of stock" or "Wii in stock!!!" outside every videogame store I can think of. Even HMV.
@naruball Wii U was definitely a hardware failure, that Wii U pad was such a pain sometimes, but a cool feature. They also had had some excellent Nintendo games on it, now ported to Switch and still raking it in too.
I had to re-read that title a few times, all I saw was 'Mario's hole' before reading the next line down.
@JapaneseSonic - Honestly it's rather pointless buying physical Switch games because most of them require you to download a large portion of the game anyway, because the cartridges don't hold a lot of space, that's one thing about Nintendo that always baffles me; their ongoing obsession with cartridges despite it's numerous limitations.
Damn... Scarlet Nexus can't even crack the top 5
@uptownsoul
Personally, if I had an Xbox with Gamepass, I wouldn’t need to buy any games. I’d not even have time to play what are given as the service. As such I’d be happy to wait for the a game I like to hit Gamepass. No great surprise to me that Ps5 games outsell even the last two gens of Xbox console combined.
RIP ya a new one Ratchet and Rivet, but I think this is still a very good record.
Also, well done to AC Valhalla for being in this chart this long after release.
@Loftimus I bought Returnal this weekend and Im totally hooked, wasnt expecting it! Its def up there for my GOTY, hope you enjoy it
@SoulChimera
Last good Mario golf game was on the GameCube which was the last one I bought.
@Crazybuttocks198 yup. Wiiu was the exception. Nintendo has done well in the UK for quite a while now. So not just with the Switch
I was expecting scarlet nexus to do much better than that, not a good at all.
Hopefully digital sales were better
I don't think I've ever seen the annual PGA Golf game make top 10, or it's probably because I'm not interested in golf.
@thechetearly They have fanatics that will buy anything that has Nintendo on the box. I like a lot of Ninty's games but they do like to squeeze everything they can out of Mario.
@naruball You sat that but the Nintendo first party games on WiiU sold great as well it was just the hardware that didn't have the wider appeal
@Kopite Yeah, that was the whole point I was making. Even with WIiU, which failed as a console, WiiU games managed to sell well, hence the example of Zelda that I brought up. Sure, nowhere near as well as they're doing on the switch, but still all sorts of impressive. No other company could rely on its first party games selling well regardless of quality as Nintendo.
@Akurusu @Tharsman I have no problem when Mario Odyssey does well, or Splatoon, Zelda, or whatever. But it's a bit of a shame to see these B-tier cash grabs from Nintendo top the charts.
@mrtennis1990
Xbox is mostly a digital eco-system for many users.
I also have the PS5 Digital version, simply as I find discs outdated, even if I could save money on preowned.
Long gone are the days I'd have shelves lined with boxed disc games!
You also need to take into account PC sales.
Have you not seen the recent Steam sales charts for the week?
Top 5;
1. Sea of Thieves
2. Sekiro
3. Horizon Zero Dawn
4. Forza Hoirzon 4
5. Halo: MCC
Now you can see why PlayStation are ramping up PC ports.
Lots of money to be made on PC with a far larger audience than on consoles.
@Octane exactly. Quality should always be rewarded (and credit given where it's due) regardless of the company. The opposite for mediocrities, especially from companies who can afford something better.
@Residentsteven Pay more money? Nintendo games are £30 cheaper than PS5 games at retail.
Plus sequel in a long running franchise does not equal same game again.
I was hoping Scarlett Nexus would crack the top 5 at least.
@naruball you ASSume incorrectly if you think your insult was not comprehended.
Good to see PS5 versions of cross-gen games outselling the PS4 versions. Gives me hope that we'll start getting current gen-only games sooner rather than later.
@Octane calling it shameful that a casual game with wide appeal and brand recognition on an extremely popular platform selling this well is as silly as being water being drank by more people than Pepsi also being seen as shameful.
Yes, it’s easier to make Mario Golf than it’s to make Ratchet. But obviously Mario Golf has wider appeal due to the casual non-gamer appeal and brand recognition. That should not be seen as shameful.
@JustPlainLoco that's just incorrect.
I have a lot of Switch physical games, and only 2 of those require a download, those being DOOM and Wolfenstein 2.
It depends on the publisher, really, but first party games never do this, only some third parties who can't be arsed to put real effort in.
@clvr or third party that just cheap out and don't purchase a the larger cartridge sizes.
Mario Golf is fun and Scarlet Nexus on my Xbox X is fun. I'm having fun over here.
@Gamer83 I'm guessing that just means that the early PS5 adopters happen to be the people most engaged in the ecosystem who tend to buy obscurish games at launch, while the mainstream PS4 owners are, at large, the people less likely to buy semi obscure games at launch and buy things later, on sales, etc. It seems shocking at first, but when you think about it, it makes sense.
@naruball Wii was such a strange animal. It was certainly a complete success pretty much everywhere, but so much of its market was a completely different group of people than any other gaming system, which of course, was their intention. But what they miscalculated was that Wii customers didn't necessarily translate to WiiU or 3DS customers. It became a novelty, a fitness fad, and a tech demo, but didn't create a new gaming market like it was supposed to - and what gaming market it did create largely became the mobile market.
Unfortunately, Wii customers seem to be translating to Switch customers which is how half-done stapled together barely-an-indie games like Rush ends up topping charts...
@Tharsman Mario Golf has another factor going for its sales: People don't know any better. I nearly became one of those sales. I got burned by Aces, it looked great, the demo was fun, then I bought the main game and found......there wasn't much more than the demo there and the "campaign" was a short tutorial at best. I don't think I played the game a full week. I held Rush at a distance, but honestly the E3 presentation made it look like it was maybe quality this time, and I almost got interested in it. But decided to hold off for the NL review, and sure enough they confirmed my worst fears about it. It was Aces all over again.
How many potential customers saw Mario, golf, a Nintendo logo and didn't have experience with Aces to know they were buying half a game?
Who am I kidding, though, look what EA gets away with.
@NEStalgia Yeah I’m not about to make comment on that. You aren’t trapping me down that rabbit hole.
@UltimateOtaku91 Scarlet Nexus has a lot of digital bonuses and the deluxe edition was “digital only”. I don’t know if that’s a factor or not but it’s something to consider.
Tons of people have a Switch just to play this stuff.
It can be mediocre, it can be the exact same 7 year old game. It does not matter - Nothing new (rehashed $60 Mario Party at E3 was "exciting")
Not surprised Scarlet Nexus selling better on PS. If you in the West and like Japanese games you buy a PlayStation. So the base will be there.
Aside from the terrible switch games, can anyone not laugh that the 2nd game on the European list is a friggin soccer game. One with lawsuits around it's microtransactions no less.
Not cliche at all Europe...👌
@naruball I've always found it weird the way that Nintendo games sell like crazy even the niche stuff recently. Anything with a picture of Mario or Pikachu is a license to print money.
@Agramonte During the dark days of Nintendo, yeah you buy Playstation for Japanese games. These days though, Switch is gaining the chokehold on that short of a handful of games here and there. It's nice that a lot of recent games, like TWEWY2 are coming out on both. It always sucked when Japanese games were always one platform or the other. Of course so much of that comes down to PS dropping the handheld line.
@thechetearly
“I genuinely do not understand how those half hearted Nintendo games keep selling so well.”
I’d gladly sign that. My thoughts exactly.
yikes. well , it is just a flavor of the month game tbh .
@TheCollector316 That sounds like a solid reason making the best out of a bad thing. And lets be honest Mario is awsome and that coming from a Playstation fan. But Metriod is my all time favorite.
@NEStalgia I really want to see Hotshots golf return on PS5 with the PS3 quality version man that game was fantastic.
It's a shame that Scarlet Nexus didn't do better. It's quite good from what I've played of it and makes such good use of the Dualsense. A true showing of how well a third-party game can use it. I know that the haptic feedback pushed me over the edge to go ahead and grab it. More sales would mean more budget for the next game that dev makes too. Non Tales, arena-fighter, or turn-based JRPGs are needed for anime games.
@thefourfoldroot
I'm tempted to pick up a series S at some point, buy Gamepass and never buy actual games for that console. When I want to actually get something I'll pick it up on PS5, otherwise I'll play the Gamepass offerings on my Xbox.
@Residentsteven
You do know the reason why Nintendo games never drop down in price? Its because Nintendos Ips are ever green games that constantly sell in the millions each year and are always in the top 10 game sale charts charts in europe , asia and america each year .
look at the top best selling games on the switch
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe : 35.39 million
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 32.63 million
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate :23.84 million
The Legend of Zelda BOTW :22.28 million
Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield: 21.10 million
Super Mario Odyssey: 20.83 million
These games still have a high demand that there is no reason for them to drop the games in price . GTA 5 was the exact same even years after its launch it still cost 60 euros.
also nintendo are not forcing you to buy anything , they are not exactly putting a gun to your head making you re-buy games if you are that upset about it .
How exactly can nintendo do backwards compatibility when all their other systems were disk based and nintendo is using catridges ?
every other company does game ports , at least more often than not with nintendo games that were wii u ports had quality of life improvements with new added expansions or content .
Be consistent with your arguments if you are upset with nintendo so called making you rebuy games over and over again you should be equally annoyed with sony not allowing you to play digital games you bought on ps3 to ps4
or making people rebuy Uncharted 1-3 all over again via the uncharted collection and last of us remastered
@NEStalgia You would missed out out on Nier Replicant, Like a dragon, Scarlet Nexus and RE Village. And Tales of Arise/Lost Judgement next in 2021. And then there is the massive library of the latest installment of franchises at dirt cheap prices ($60 for Ninokuni 2 in 2021 is insanity). Best bang for the buck is still PlayStation. And with Day 1 release, BC and Free upgrades the PS5 is already hard to beat this gen.
@DeepSpace5D thanks bud.
@ATaco
I’d do that, where it not much cheaper to just buy games physically and trade them back 🤷♂️
@Residentsteven
Just skip all of it. I have had my Switch since launch and not bought 1 single Wii/WiiU $60 rehash (or cardboard)
I now use xCloud on the go to bridge the gaps between actual "new" games.
Even forgotten games like ARMS, Yoshi and Pokemon Turnament DX are still $60... so the "market demand" excuse is nonsense.
They do it because they can get away with it. And for sure 3rd party will join the fun. Where else can you charge $60 for Ninokuni 2 in 2021?
@Flaming_Kaiser Yeah, that one was a lot of fun! I wonder what the fate of that series is now that Japan Studio is gone and Clap Hanz seems to have sipped from the mobile cup. It was so-so with Camelot (big surprise, same as Mario Golf), got great with Clap Hanz....but started going down the Camelot path with the PS4 version. They used to be more or less "Sony second party" but now they've gone all in on mobile, and since that's where the home market is.... sigh
@Agramonte Indeed, which is why I have all 3 consoles. FOMO, lol. BUT there's a lot less disparity than before, and no matter what way you go you're going to miss out on something (I know around these parts it's popular to think that doesn't apply to XB but I know better )
The down-side to having all three is the sheer "workload" involved in having so many games you really want to play and will never have time for. I'm officially a game hoarder. I have a stockpile of games I really want to play and probably never will. But I figure I'm apocalypse ready. When the economy finally goes bust and we're all homeless, I'll be chilling under my bridge by my fire barrel playing the best games of 2005-2022, stockpiled for a lifetime. If only I had electricity.
Still, even if I weren't a nintendo games fan, I'd have to have one just for MH Rise (and Monstie Hunter.) The handheld MH is still the real MH, and I'm standing by that!
@PaperAlien thanks, you to bud.
Oh come on, who forgot to buy their weekly copy of GTA5?!
@NEStalgia I am missing 1 (XSX) but I almost pulled the trigger over the weekend when BestBuy had it up. But PS5/Switch/PC are working pretty well for me. And I need to save for a new Waterblock for my PC,
Outside of Zelda, Xenoblade, Metroid (Prime not the 2D stuff) I've discovered I am not much of a Nintendo fan anymore (RISE waiting for PC, because I need voice chat). But I still rather play turn based RPGs like MH Stories, RYZA, Bravely 2 and Cold Steel on a handheld. So Switch is it.
Well, I'll leave the apocalypse reconstruction up to you. I cant even imaging the Pandemic with no electricity or gaming... I would be the person at the beach like Tea Leoni 😅
@Tharsman the irony of you crying foul for being insulted right after you insulted others calling them "salty".
@ArcadeHeroes
"You do know the reason why Nintendo games never drop down in price? Its because Nintendos Ips are ever green games that constantly sell in the millions each year and are always in the top 10 game sale charts charts in europe , asia and america each year ."
I'm not sure if this is 100% the case for all Nintendo IPs. While many sell extremely well for 5+ years, some don't, yet their price never drops much at all. So, I think regardless whether a particular first party game sells well or not, the price won't drop significantly, because that would build expectations for the rest of their games. It's a strategy that works for them because they do have a lot of evergreen games and those that don't sell well at least give the library some variety.
@naruball It’s not about that. It’s about the fans on this site having an issue whenever another company is doing well.
@SoulChimera I watched Eurogamer do a stream of it and hearing Toad scream “yeeehawww” a hundred times in the space of five minutes was enough to make me avoid.
Just a shame there’s no news of a new EBG coming to PS. Played the Apple Arcade version and it just felt cheap and unpolished
@thechetearly Maybe it's the half hearted reviews of PS games?
@NEStalgia The PS4 version was terrible i stopped playing it after 30 minutes it looked worse then the PS3 version and the gameplay was already perfect in my eyes. 😢
@Flaming_Kaiser You'd think golf-lite wouldn't be difficult to make, yet here we are, with neither Camelot nor Clap Hanz able to pull it off without looking like they just threw it together in a few weeks.
At this point EA's upcoming PGA "sim" will be the best casual golf game by default!
@NEStalgia Its shocking indeed give me a roster update a few new coarses update the graphics and im happy.
Dont murder me for this but yes i would buy the game a €70 on day one if they release a new one thats more like the old one. 😢
Yes im that desperate to get a new one and yes i rather pay the premium then never play one again.
@Flaming_Kaiser It's a new level of desperation when we stop clamoring for games that are better than the last one, and instead clamor for games that are more like the prior one and it qualifies as better
I guess that's Nintendo's entire secret strategy, though, now that I think about it, lol
@NEStalgia But when the old ones are great i dont feel the need for something new Everybody's golf was such great fun on the PSP, PS3 did we even get one on the PS Vita cant even remember but i loved them hard but rewarding and so much fun. And then we got the PS4 one that one was a kick in jewels for me i would rather have had a PS3 remaster then the garbage we got.
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