UK Charts: FIFA 09 Is Number One For Christmas

The UK video game charts' Christmas number one is traditionally taken from the all formats chart, and thus for 2008, EA’s multiformat soccer sim FIFA 09 lifted the trophy, with sales up 89 percent following new retailer promotions. In a difficult year for the company, the game became EA’s sixth Christmas number one in the last eight years. However, with four consecutive weeks at number one, Nintendo’s Mario Kart Wii keeps the top spot in the UK individual format sales charts, in the last full week before Christmas. First released on April 11th in Europe, the game has only dropped out of the top 10 four times since that time - and then only because of stock problems. The game’s sales rose 40 percent over the last seven days. Also in the individual format charts Brain Training (aka Brain Age) on Nintendo DS remained at number two, despite a 1 percent drop in sales. Controller bundle Wii Play took third place, with the re-entry of Professor Layton and the Curious Village giving Nintendo the entire top four. Out of stock almost since launch, Level-5’s first Professor Layton game has not been in the top 40 for over a month. As a result of its return the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: World at War fell two places to number five, with the PlayStation 3 version also down two places to number nine. Wii Fit was down one place to number six, with the Xbox 360 version of FIFA 09 rising 19 places to number seven. LittleBigPlanet on PlayStation 3 fell two places to number eight and Gears of War 2 rounded off the Christmas chart at number 10. Elsewhere in the top 40 there were multiple re-entries, most thanks to retailer promotions, with SingStar Abba on PlayStation 2 at number 29, Quantum of Solace on Xbox 360 at number 30, Prince of Persia on Xbox 360 at number 32 and on PlayStation 3 at number 35, and FIFA 09 on PSP at number 39. Overall in the top 40 there were 12 titles for the Xbox 360, 11 for the Wii, eight for the Nintendo DS, six for the PlayStation 3 and one each for the PC, PSP and PlayStation 2.

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2008. ELSPA; Ltd