Wii Games Debut In UK Charts

The top two places in the UK video game sales charts, both occupied by Electronic Arts franchises, have remained unchanged this week, with the next two positions merely swapping places. If the next two week’s charts remain similarly inert, then it will be the first time the FIFA soccer series has remained the number one Christmas title during the current/previous generation. The European launch of the Wii did have some notable effect on the UK charts though, despite less stock than initially expected. Six out of the fourteen launch titles made it into the top forty, with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess being the most successful, with two thirds of Wii owners buying a copy. Using Nintendo UK’s figures of around 50,000 consoles sold in the first twelve hours this would suggest a figure for Zelda of around 33,000 units. Mini-game collection and extra controller bundle Wii Play, which is so far unavailable in North America and the only other first party release in Europe, was the second highest ranking game at number nine. The highest third party game was Ubisoft’s Red Steel at number nineteen, with Rayman Raving Rabbids debuting at number thirty, alongside the other format versions (although the Wii version accounted for 86 percent of overall sales of the title). The other Wii titles in the top forty are all multiformat releases, ranging from Need for Speed Carbon and Call of Duty 3 in the top ten, to Midway’s Happy Feet, which becomes the highest climber this week from number eighteen to number eleven. The other new entries in the top forty are all from games released earlier in the year, including Xbox 360 Live Arcade Unplugged at number thirty-five, Yoshi’s Island DS at number thirty-six, Big Brain Academy at number thirty-nine and SingStar Legends at number forty.

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2006 ELSPA Ltd