UK Sales Chart, Week Ending October 22nd

The UK sales charts have been inundated with so many new releases this week that even high profile titles such as SSX On Tour and L.A. Rush have failed to make it into the top ten. Such bottlenecks often crop up in the UK pre-holiday season schedules, with many titles never recovering from a poor first week of sales. The biggest new entry is Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 5 for PS2, which is, as usual, a retooled version of the latest Word Soccer Winning Eleven title from Japan. The series has been increasing in popularity over the years, so much so that Electronic Arts moved forward the release of this year’s FIFA iteration to give its game more of a head start in sales. Many will now be watching with interest to see how the two titles compete, and which emerges as the victor at the end of the Christmas sales period. With Sports Interactive’s Football Manager 2006 becoming the second highest new entry, the top three this week is entirely taken up with soccer titles. Rockstar’s The Warriors has become the highest non-sports entry at number four, followed by the much-delayed UK release of Nintendo's Pokémon Emerald. Monolith’s much hyped first person shoot ‘em-up F.E.A.R. has also performed well, given the competition, coming out ahead of Id Software’s less warmly received Quake 4. Outside of the top ten, L.A. Rush has entered at number seventeen, followed by SSX On Tour at number twenty and THQ’s Bratz: Rock Angelz at number twenty-nine. With even more new releases due next week, including The Suffering: Ties That Bind, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland and Star Wars: Battlefront II, it will be interesting to note whether the charts suffer any further notable disappointments in the Christmas rush.

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