Call of Duty remains UK's top-selling franchise for third year in a row

Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the best-selling game in the UK across all platforms in 2011, followed by Electronic Arts' popular FIFA 12 and Battlefield 3 releases. This marks the third year in a row that the Call of Duty series was the top-selling title in the country, according to GfK Chart-Track data released by trade body UKIE. In 2010, Activision dominated the All Formats chart with Call of Duty: Black Ops, while 2009 saw the reign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The first-person shooter franchise's latest release -- which shipped for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PC in November -- set new sales records in the country after grossing £83 million ($127.8 million) during its first week on store shelves. Globally, Modern Warfare 3 reached $1 billion in sales 16 days after launching. EA published the next two biggest selling titles in the UK: soccer game FIFA 12, which sold 1 million units in just two days; and Battlefield 3, a rival to Call of Duty that managed to have one of most successful debut week launches in the country's history. Zumba Fitness, the exercise game published by 505 Games in Europe, was the fourth best-selling title -- mostly from its Wii version. Bethesda Softworks' open world RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim followed, and was the company's most successful title in the UK yet. Despite a number of new records for the industry, the UK games market suffered its third year of sales decline at retail. UKIE estimates that video game software and hardware sales dropped 13 percent to £2.52 billion ($3.9 billion) in 2011, down from £2.9 billion ($4.48 billion) in 2010. The lists for the top 10 best-selling games across all platforms, and the top 5 best-selling titles for individual platforms in the UK follow: 2011 All Formats Chart

2011 Nintendo Wii Chart

2011 Xbox 360 chart

2011 Sony PlayStation 3 Chart

2011 Nintendo 3DS chart

2011 Nintendo DS chart

2011 Sony PSP chart

2011 PC Games chart

"In a year when overall consumer spending was down, the launch of so many high-quality titles showed that there was still strength in the UK's boxed-product games market," said UKIE CEO Jo Twist. She noted that digital sales are also growing, and that the trade association will begin tracking them in 2012.