UK Sales Chart, Week Ending October 16th

Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer (aka World Soccer Winning Eleven) seems to have finally won its battle against Electronic Arts’ FIFA Football series, knocking its rival from the number one spot in the UK sales charts after only one week. Konami’s title has become the third best-selling title of all time in the UK for single-week sellthrough, selling 50 per cent more than the PlayStation 2 version of FIFA Football managed last week. This is easily the best performance ever for the series in the UK, and also mirrors its increasing dominance in Japan. The only potential problem for Konami is that the series traditionally has little staying power, compared to the more heavily marketed FIFA, although that may be helped this year by the release of PC and Xbox versions in November. The rest of the top ten has shown little movement over the previous week, save the improving fortunes of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 – buoyed by the release of PC and Game Boy Advance versions, and continued aggressive marketing by Activision. Elsewhere in the charts, GameCube novelty title Donkey Konga has done well to enter at number seventeen – given the high cost of the bongos and software bundle. Meanwhile, Shark Tale and Crash: Twinsanity are both likely to improve on their entry at number twelve and fourteen, respectively, as the Christmas buying period continues.

Official UK Leisure Software Charts (c) ELSPA compiled by Chart-Track