Cue the "who hasn't already bought Grand Theft Auto V?" responses in the comments because Rockstar's heavyweight was the second best-selling physical game in the UK last week. Only beaten to the top spot by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, GTA 5 rose five places to claim second, representing a 44 per cent increase in sales. F1 2021, which has spent the past three weeks in first place, slipped to sixth.
The single brand new entry in the top 10 is Hades, with its release across PlayStation and Xbox consoles slotting the rogue-like in eighth position. 93 per cent of boxed copies sales were for Sony systems (70 per cent on PS5, 23 per cent on PS4). Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart then returned in 10th place as a bit of PS5 Stock meant the exclusive generated a 313 per cent rise in physical purchases. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game dropped off the podium in fourth as the real-life event wrapped things up, while Assassin's Creed Valhalla continues to hover around in seventh.
Funnily enough, GTA 5 may not be the only entry in the Rockstar series charting in the UK by the end of the year. Some strong speculation suggests the developer has a remastered GTA Trilogy in the works, consisting of the three mainline PS2 titles. Could we be reporting on two GTA products making up the top 10 by the end of the year? It certainly seems so if the developer decides to do a physical version.
UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 14th August 2021
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Minecraft (Switch)
- Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- F1 2021
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla
- Hades
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 66
It’s not called GTA V because it’s the fifth game in the series, it’s called GTA V because everyone must own five copies by now.
The top 3 paints a sorry picture of games within the past 7 years.
Well I was one of those who bought ratchet and clank last week nearly finished it yesterday but just need to mop up a few trophies before finishing the story, really enjoyed it, bit short but looks and feels great. Might pick Hades up on disc too, played a bit on gamepass but I just prefer the ps5 controller and want to support the Devs so might pick it up this week on disc.
I think there is somebody out there who has had a vision of an apocalyptic future where the only currency is disc copies of GTA5 and they are stocking up now in preparation.
Who hasn't already bought Grand Theft Auto V?
I imagine the high sales rate on PS4/5 is due to the fact its included in Gamepass on xbox.
Don't see why Hades selling well is a surprise really given that 90% of Xbox owners will have played via Gamepass
A PS3 Game and we are into PS5 GEN Hmmm.
@Salt_AU On top of it being in Game Pass, I think that overall, the Xbox crowd is moving to digital even quicker than Sony fans are. Probably spurned on by Game Pass and the Series S (I still haven’t met anyone that has a digital PS5).
@Enigk 8 years now almost absolutely crazy, I don't get why Nintendo haven't thrown out MK9 it's a license to print money
Nice to see Ratchet back in the top ten… just!
Is it actually cheaper to buy new copies than buying the cash cards? I always imagined CEX being overloaded with second hand copies although they are still offering GBP 10-14 for PS4 copies.
@lolwhatno Thanks for the salute!
@lolwhatno and I!
Is the GTAV thing because it’s cheaper to buy a copy of the game then sell it to get some type of micro transaction currency, than it is to just buy the currency outright? Would be interested to see the user numbers compared to games sold.
@Salt_AU
Oh man. So much salt over Hades on Game Pass since day one. I am enjoying the hell out of it on GP and I'm happy I didn't have to pay as I wasn't sure if I'd like it (I don't usually like roguelikes). I'll play for a week or two and just move on. To whatever comes next. Game Pass naysayers really need to just let it go and accept it's here to stay.
@thefourfoldroot I definitely think this is a factor. Amazon is currently selling a Premium Edition for £15.99 that comes packaged with some premium currency.
@Salt_AU New games are coming fast...uhh huh 😀
I wish there was a way to track repeat buyers of a game. That would finally confirm whether or not GTAV is mostly selling to new players or just people wanting to get shark cards cheaper. Either way it is absolutely insane considering I'd put GTAV as one of my least favorite GTAs. (Still enjoyed it though.)
@Salt_AU I have my popcorn ready for those that cry on Twitter over starfield getting decent reviews... Be interesting to see who's popcorn goes stale first...
Hades was always going to sell more physical on PlayStation with it being on gamepass. I do wonder how physical editions will end up being treated on Xbox as this trend continues... particularly from indie Devs who may just end up declining to release physical editions on Xbox.
Make no mistake, both Microsoft and Sony would prefer you to buy digital only... Gamepass may just end up taking the option away for a lot of these smaller devs
@Bleachedsmiles Most indie devs already don't release physical copies of Xbox games that get physical copies on Playstation or switch... like Dead Cells, and a ton of other indie games.
I think we can all assume the real reason GTA V is still selling well to this day is down to the Megalodon shark card bundle that comes with the base game, which is usually under £30 when on a sale. It’s cheaper to buy that than buying the shark card on its own which is £64.99. But that’s usually with digital downloads, I’m not sure if there’s even many physical copies of that bundle these days.
I don’t get why physical sale charts are still a thing on its own these days as it really doesn’t give the full picture on how well a game is really selling given that digital sales play a massive part now. If it’s too much to work out how well a game has sold both physically and digitally then I think it’s redundant having one without the other. A physical chart could show a game that’s sold poorly but sold extremely well digitally. Thats just my two cents anyway.
At this point you have to wonder if GTA V has become sentient and is now buying copies of itself to stay relevant.
@Hypnotoad107 Its possible - after all MS also released an Xbox One S 'All-Digital' too and of course the price and availability of the Series S too makes it much more likely that these, combined with the availability of Hades on Game Pass means its much more likely to be 'accessed' digitally.
Of course the developers get 'money' for every person that downloads Hades via Game Pass (and a bit more if they then go on to buy at a later date - you normally need to wait to get the 20% discount too. It doesn't make sense to 'buy' on day 1...
Discounts are based on the Microsoft Store price and on the game’s global launch date. Between 31 and 90 days from a game’s launch date, members receive up to 10% discount off the Microsoft Store price. After 90 days from a game’s launch date, members receive up to a 20% discount. For game add-ons and consumables, Xbox Game Pass members receive up to a 10% discount from the day the add-on is released.
Whilst MLB21 for example was on Game Pass on day 1, Game Pass owners still had to pay 'full price' to own the game outright - same as Sony gamers too - however now, they would get a 20% discount off the Store Price + 10% discount on any DLC...
Even if 90% of Xbox owners downloaded via Game Pass, the Devs would get money and it makes 'little' sense to buy a Game you can play for free, knowing that IF you want to Keep it, in a few months, you get a 'discount'.
Sales are becoming a 'ridiculous' metric now. It twas bad enough when Digital sales aren't included but with 'subscription' based services too, its an obsolete metric. Its like trying to base a Movies success purely on its 'Box Office' when Films are also on Subscription Based services too. The last Suicide Squad is a 'box office' flop considering the 'cost' to make it and its box office receipts. Marvels Black Widow was too - and enough for the star to 'sue' the Studio as their pay was tied to Box Office performance.
Hades could be a LOT more successful and profitable on Xbox despite the 'sales' indicating otherwise. More Digital sales, more players, more money to the devs from combined sales and GP downloads etc. Of course Xbox Game Pass also includes PC/Mobile users too...
@Hypnotoad107 here. Ps5 digital. I stopped buying physical games midway through ps3's life cycle and never looked back.
@katamariUK I'm not sure if that's better or worse than bottlecaps
@Salt_AU I don't think they'll monetize single player games heavily but I can definitely see GP going up in price when they start dropping all the exclusive games on there. I don't get how it can make money right now with them paying to get multiplatform games on there day 1 as well.
@Kopite, I think the price of the GamesPass will inevitably increase fairly soon, and will probably have a small annual increase implemented in the years thereafter. It needs the increase to be sustainable, and to leave the price increase too long would mean a much larger hike in cost, and that, in turn, would be met with hostility and people leaving the service. A small, and then annual increase will be more palatable. Of course, any increase would be met with an outcry, but a smaller initial increase would be met with a more muted voice.
The last time I saw figures, which was a fair few months back now, there were 23 million subscribers. That's an awful lot of money coming in each month. I think the GamesPass is sustainable in the long run, but I'm certain that the accountants are keeping a very close eye on it. A degree of losses are likely acceptable to Microsoft so long as people are buying into their eco-system, as in the long-run that would still equate to profits, which of course, is the ultimate aim...
Holy heck on that hades percentage, in the future I think most xbox people won't pay money for games, only paying for cheap subs.
Hades..awesome game and maybe people are buying gtav for when the ps5 edition drops..for the free upgrade..before the price gets over inflated again..
@wiiware it has been a long announced gamepass game, of course it will not sell right now on xb. Once it leaves gamepass, it will sell there as well.
In my case, Sony lost a sale because it's on GamePass.
@Northern_munkey nah, all the gta5 new sales, for years now, have been mostly because of the included online funds they've bundled with the game.
I really don't get who keeps buying GTA V......
@wiiware Absolutely this. And those same people try to shame those that prefer to pay full price. MS are trying to change the industry to be all quantity over quality.
@Fiendish-Beaver gamepass already got considerably more expensive. They achieved this by limiting live gold to gamepass conversion AND by not having special deals on the subscription cards since more than a year now.
@Deanster101 GTA online players.
I pre ordered Hades so will definitely platinum it on PS5 & PS4, brilliant game. Definitely prefer owning game's over renting them for a sort period, I haven't played a game on GamePass for months. For me the massive downside to GamePass is seeing game's like Halo infinite being cut-up into its multiplayer going Free 2 Play Microtransactions, campaign coop being a full priced game. Hopefully Gears Of War 6 doesn't go down the same root which it probably will. Microsoft has to make money to fund GamePass some how, as GamePass isn't as profitable as people make out. Which how can it be especially at £7.99 month as Microsoft has to pay for every 3rd party game & Indie to be put on GamePass a massive outlay.
"General Manager of Xbox Games Marketing Aaron Greenberg rather candidly admitted that in the short term Xbox Game Pass is indeed not that profitable for Microsoft."
Nice to see Rift Apart come back into the Top 10.
I would love to know total number of sales for GTA V. Will it be the first game to sell more than the total population of the world?!?!
I played and beat GTA V on PS3 back in 2013-14. When they announced it for PS4 at $60, I didn't want to double dip at full price so I waited. It took nearly the entire gen for them to finally drop the price to around $40 and at that point I had lost interest entirely. Then they announced it for PS5.
I don't get why this game is selling this many copies still. I seriously don't understand it. The game was fun for a bit and then it got boring like all GTA games.
@thefourfoldroot A friend of mine has bought multiple copies of GTA V just to get the online currency.
@TheDudeElDuderino oh i agree 100% its definatly an enticing propositition but the free upgrade rumor must also be a deciding factor in recent sale surges too..you would be silly not to purchase a cheap ps4 copy physical or digital if it is indeed a free upgrade path..
@AdamNovice Please explain how MS are trying to “change the industry to be all quantity over quality”? Would you not class Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, Psychonauts 2, Back 4 Blood, Stalker 2 as quality titles? Some of those games are well worth paying the full years worth of subscription for.
@TheDudeElDuderino, The GamesPass, when it started in June 2017, had a relatively poor (by comparison) choice of games, and cost $10 a month. There were (and still are) many options in how you started the subscription with the most popular being 12 months for $1 (that's $1 for the whole 12 months, not 12 payments of $1). It was at this price point that I jumped aboard on the day it started.
4 years later, and the subscription is now $15 a month, though again, you can buy a full 12 months for much less ($21 for 12 months is one bargain I found today). So effectively it has increased in price by about a dollar a year for each year of its existence. In that 4 years the quantity and quality of the games has improved significantly, and, it has to be said, with the commitment from Microsoft to have ALL first party games release straight on to the GamesPass, Day One, the service will only get better.
I get that some people want it to fail because they couldn't possibly want Xbox to succeed, but in truth, anyone that takes a proper look at this subscription service cannot fail to see its value. Anything that improves a gamers lot should be applauded, and it is difficult to fault this service from Xbox...
@Bentleyma- Never even played it!
@Fiendish-Beaver I don’t want it to fail but I don’t want Sony to do it. It still has not turned a profit for MS to this day so let them keep losing money and let Sony do what they do.
@Culjoseth Actually, we don't know how the service is performing. Microsoft haven't said whether or not is is turning a profit, and as I said before, the GamesPass is also about bringing people into their eco-system. When people decide to purchase an Xbox because of the GamesPass in particular, they will also buy other games for the Xbox but not included on the GamesPass.
My view is simple, if you can afford to buy both consoles, then there has never been a better time to be a gamer. I am fortunate enough to own both, and I am extremely happy and impressed with both purchases.
@banacheck "Microsoft has to make money to fund GamePass some how"
You mean like the multi-million dollar contracts Microsoft gets from governments, companies (including Sony), and educators? Like all the money it makes for just being Microsoft and existing in basically every home across the world? The money it's made to make it an over $1T company?
Trust me, Game Pass will be fine because Microsoft can afford to make it fine.
@Fiendish-Beaver You can still get Game Pass for $10/mo if you don't want Game Pass Ultimate. There is still base Game Pass and Game Pass PC subscription options. I mean, if you don't care about Games With Gold or multiplayer, than $10 is still totally feasible.
I have really been enjoying Hades on GP, so far. It's not something I would ever buy. The whole "one more run" mentality is starting to drain the farther I get into the game. Returnal was fine because at least once you beat the boss, you don't have to fight said boss again to progress. Not so much in Hades.
@Rural-Bandit Never said it was not a great value. Sony does not have the pockets of MS so we don’t need it here. Disney+ is a bad example as it is a new service and now making a profit. GP has been around since 2017.
@Fiendish-Beaver Don’t disagree if u can afford both, get both and take advantage of GP while u can. There has been multiple reports that GP has never been profitable and Spencer himself has all but said so. Not a fan of XB as their exclusives (very few) have never wetted my appetite.
@Salt_AU They already have put the 1st party stuff on there like the recent Flight Sim.
@Fiendish-Beaver "$21 for 12 months is one bargain I found today"... please share, I have not been able to find anything that spectacular in the last 18 months.
I love the service, but I like and use ps now as well. They are quite different beasts though and the MS promise of having 1st party day one on the service made me into a huge xb fan. From "xbox never" to "xbox forever" in 5 seconds. 😁 Well, actually not - it took them 19 years to get me but I went from xb1x to xbsx within the same year 😂 and gamepass is great for anyone who has missed all previous xb games. That is to say, I am well in the "this is an outstanding service" camp.
@Rural-Bandit Sony’s answer is to keep doing what they are doing. We don’t need a GP equivalent.
@BAMozzy Can you show me something that states developers get money for every person who downloads their game via gamepass because I've never heard this mentioned before?
Everything I've seen regarding the service, including interviews with Phil himself talking about how developers get paid, has referenced a cash upfront model.
Discs copies are awesome.
That’s the comment haha
@Salt_AU Nice. I have a disc PS5. I’d like a digital PS5 for my game room.
@Rural-Bandit All he said was that they have their own plans. That does not mean a GP equivalent. Maybe just their answer to it.
As for as a $15 monthly fee for Nintendo games?? That’s way too high cause Nintendo would never put anything of quality on there.
@Rural-Bandit Real question, not trolling. I have a friend that is a Xbox gamer only and tries to tell me how great GP is. I finally got him to admit that before GP he completed more games but now having GP, he plays more but rarely finishes any of them. Is this the same for u?
@Intr1n5ic https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/xbox-chief-reveals-more-about-how-developers-earn-money-through-game-pass/
"Our deals are, I’ll say, all over the place. That sounds unmanaged, but it’s really based on the developer’s need. One of the things that’s been cool to see is a developer, usually a smaller to mid-sized developer, might be starting a game and say, 'Hey, we’re willing to put this in Game Pass on our launch day if you guys will give us X dollars now'," he said.
"[In] certain cases, we’ll pay for the full production cost of the game. Then they get all the retail opportunity on top of Game Pass. They can go sell it on PlayStation, on Steam, and on Xbox, and on Switch. [...] Sometimes the developer’s more done with the game and it’s more just a transaction of, 'Hey, we’ll put it in Game Pass if you’ll pay us this amount of money.'"
"Others want [agreements] more based on usage and monetization in whether it’s a store monetization that gets created through transactions, or usage. We’re open [to] experimenting with many different partners, because we don’t think we have it figured out. When we started, we had a model that was all based on usage. Most of the partners said, 'Yeah, yeah, we understand that, but we don’t believe it, so just give us the money upfront.'"
And 'Usage' is where they pay devs based on how many people download and play the game. MS started with that model and whilst its not the case for 'every' game on Game Pass now, its certainly an 'option' for developers. Admittedly, I don't know what 'deal' MS has in place specifically for Hades - they could of paid an 'upfront' fee or maybe the Devs think that it maybe more 'lucrative' for them to go the 'usage' route - after all, their game is an Award winning game and could tempt more people to try it on the publicity and get more money than an 'upfront' fee.
In other words, MS started with that business model of paying devs/publishers based on usage but found that model didn't work for EVERYONE so now have different models in place. However, MS 'started' by offering devs a 'usage' model, paying them based on every game that was downloaded via Game Pass. Therefore I hope this statement from Phil is the evidence you wanted...
@TheDudeElDuderino Most people didn't have ps4 and xbox since the games library are nearly the same, I think it's only a few gamers that didn't buy hades on ps4 because it's available on gamepass.
@wiiware that's obviously the case. I just wanted to point out that a game being on gamepass doesn't exclusively affect sales only on that platform. Yes, obviously, it's statistically almost insignificant.
with GTA 5 still selling so well, i don't expect Rockstar having the urge to develop a GTA 6 on PS5 e Xbox Series X.
@uptownsoul well without digitals sales and actually getting more concrete numbers from a more evenly divided country like the US; nothing is going to make good sense. The UK install base is far more in PS favor vs the US. Not a bad thing it’s just more difficult to compare what MS is saying based on percentages alone from a country that skews PS. And The NPDs that track the US are based on revenue not units, Hades is going to have difficultly charting.
@BAMozzy "And 'Usage' is where they pay devs based on how many people download and play the game"
Is it though?
I remember reading that article last year because I was interested in how this was a sustainable model, but I was even more confused reading his responses because after 3 years (at that time) they still didn't have a fixed approach when it came to payment, to the point where if they weren't supported by obscene amounts of money from other sources this probably would have crashed and burned already.
Usage is such a vague term here that your assumption is it refers to downloads, but if that's the case why wouldn't he specifically say that. It would make a lot more sense in that context to say developers earn money when people download their game. Usage to me implies some sort of metric or parameters that need to be met. Also, as you highlighted, he goes on to say that this is the model they adopted when starting out 4 years ago and "MOST" of the partners weren't in support of it.
My point here is that you're assuming usage means a download, and also originally stated that the Hades devs are making money for every download, both of which are unsubstantiated.
@Giancarlothomaz I thought 6 had been 'announced' for 5 years time when our shiny new consoles are starting to look a bit geriatric
@uptownsoul Well although Hades is a part of the conversation, I was talking more in general less specially. Because even non game pass games like Nier have 10% splits with box copies.
But, no I don’t think it’s going to outsell anything; it’s not necessary. I’m just saying games pop up with 7% Xbox and people assume the game didn’t sell at all on that system. Only to find the digital sales turns into 30% which is a lot more reasonable and more indicative of the market.
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