UK Top 40: Skyrim dethrones Modern Warfare 3

By Tom Phillips Published 12 December, 2011

Sales soar 145 per cent after price cuts.

Bethesda behemoth The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has knocked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 off of the UK all-format chart top spot.

Skyrim sales rose 145 per cent, levelling the RPG up the chart from fifth last week to first.

The price of Skyrim dropped by an average of £13 compared to last week.

The games launched head-to-head, five weeks ago. Modern Warfare 3 has held first place in the chart ever since.

Ubisoft song-fest Just Dance 3 rose for the fourth week running into third place, no doubt helped by the launch of the game's PlayStation 3 version.

FIFA 12 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations made up the rest of the top five.

Battlefield 3 was sixth, ahead of the new Professor Layton game Spectre's Call, which held seventh for the third week running.

Saint's Row: The Third, Uncharted 3 and Mario Kart 7 also managed top ten finishes.

Just below, Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympics remained eleventh despite sales rising 16 per cent.

And Rayman: Origins entered the chart for the first time in 39th, three weeks after launch.

The full chart lies below.

Skyrim in Japanese.

This Week Last Week Title Platform(s)
1 5 The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim PC, PS3, Xbox 360
2 1 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
3 4 Just Dance 3 Wii, Xbox 360
4 2 FIFA 12 PS3, Xbox 360
5 3 Assassin's Creed: Revelations PC, PS3, Xbox 360
6 9 Battlefield 3 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
7 7 Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call DS
8 6 Saints Row: The Third PC, PS3, Xbox 360
9 16 Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception PS3
10 8 Mario Kart 7 3DS
11 11 Mario & Sonic: London 2012 Olympic Games Wii
12 10 Super Mario 3D Land 3DS
13 12 Need for Speed: The Run PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
14 18 Forza Motorsport 4 Xbox 360
15 15 Batman: Arkham City PS3, Xbox 360
16 19 Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
17 20 Zumba Fitness Wii, PS3, Xbox 360
18 17 Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure 3DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
19 21 Michael Jackson: The Experience DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
20 30 Abba: You Can Dance Wii
21 25 Sonic Generations PS3, Xbox 360
22 23 Mario Kart Wii Wii
23 14 WWE '12 PS3, Xbox 360
24 34 Zumba Fitness 2 Wii
25 26 Kinect Sports Xbox 360
26 13 Moshi Monsters: Moshling Zoo DS
27 22 Football Manager 2012 PC
28 Re-entry GoldenEye: Reloaded PS3, Xbox 360
29 27 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Wii
30 37 Kinect Sports: Season 2 Xbox 360
31 24 Rage PC, PS3, Xbox 360
32 29 Cars 2 DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
33 31 Lego Pirates of the Caribbean 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
34 33 Dance Central Xbox 360
35 28 Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Xbox 360
36 Re-entry F1 2011 PS3
37 Re-entry Wii Party Wii
38 40 Gears of War 3 Xbox 360
39 New entry Rayman Origins PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
40 32 Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn 3DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360

UKIE Games Charts compiled by GfK Chart-Track.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • systems #1 5 months ago

    Sales increased when the price dropped? Talk me through that one more time...

  • N2O1990 #2 5 months ago

    nice to see Rayman finally in top 40

  • duckmouth #3 5 months ago

    Nice to see Skyrim getting the sales it deserves. I wonder if Arkham City dropping to £17.99 for today will send it to #1? (Play.com)

  • Zomoniac #4 5 months ago

    Didn't see that coming.

    So is that bookmaker that already paid out on MW3 being Christmas number one going to ask everyone for their winnings back? :)

  • gillri #5 5 months ago

    Yes but its only a temp price drop, I hope Zelda gets one too as im almost finished all of skyrim (200 hours in)

  • MasterNameless #6 5 months ago

    Haha, nice one. There' no better advertising than the friends list! Myself, and many other friends have been playing Skyrim... all the time, for ages now. Even the friends who don;t normally play RPG's are eventually caving. They're probably bored of playing Battlefield (or MW3 it seems) on their own since Skyrim (and Dark Souls, in my case) got released.

    And even with all the dodgy patches and new stories about them, I guess this goes to show there's no such thing as bad publicity again.

  • Gunhappy23 #7 5 months ago

    I used to play MW3 like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.

  • menage #8 5 months ago

    Skyrim selling bucktes can never be a bad thing.

  • arcam #9 5 months ago

    Wow. Wasn't expecting that, price drop or not.

    Is CoD doing worse than it normally does at this time of year? Or is this Skyrim punching above its weight?

  • MattRobson #10 5 months ago

    Good to see!

  • mastablasta #11 5 months ago

    Excellent game deserves the top spot as i do not normally play rpg games but love this one. Looking forward to the next game in the series now.

  • roz123 #12 5 months ago

    On Amazon you can get Skyrim for £22.49 and Uncharted 3 for £24. I am just going to wait for sales like this next christmas.

  • CaptainQuint #13 5 months ago

    Any word on when 1.3 is arriving on Xbox? I haven't played Skyrim for 3 bleedin' weeks now.

  • Acquiescence #14 5 months ago

    Uncharted 3 rising back up the charts; that's what I like to see.

  • Madder-Max #15 5 months ago

    can we please end this patch nonsense. On the 360 it works perfectly well off disk, post.1.2 patch. no probs whatsoever.

  • evild_edd #16 5 months ago

    @duckmouth - curse you! I've enough unplayed games as it is, but couldn't resist that price.....B:AC will be added to the unplayed pile when it arrives in a few days :p

  • zegerman1942 #17 5 months ago

    Bloody well done Skyrim and well deserved! Nice to see BF3 sales have picked up as well again - i guess that's to do with Karkand out on PS3 and coming on Xbox/PC this week.

  • s3kShUn8 #18 5 months ago

    @CaptainQuint Apparently the patch has been sent to Sony and Microsoft for certification so its on them now.
    Source: http://www.bethblog.com/
    Edited by s3kShUn8 at 12/12/11 @ 10:54

  • metamorphic #19 5 months ago

    Cue epic Dovahkin music.

  • metallicorphan #20 5 months ago

    @arcam

    'Is CoD doing worse than it normally does at this time of year? Or is this Skyrim punching above its weight?'

    Skyrim seems to be doing well,its apparently already just 500k units behind Oblivion life time sales and the game hasn't been out that long,and that was from November NPDs,so it will be even closer by now

  • roz123 #21 5 months ago

    Here is the individual charts

    Just Dance 3 Wii is number 1

  • Farzlepot #22 5 months ago

    Yes! Skyrim is so epic it's taking on real-life dragons and winning! Suck it Activision!

  • Daeltaja #23 5 months ago

    Brilliant news. Who'd have thought it? Just goes to show what a package brimming with Single Playercontent is capable, if done right.

    Congratulations Bethesda, you've done very well indeed, regardless of a price drop (which only happened in GAME over here, seemingly)

  • Nephirion #24 5 months ago

    Proves the majority of gamers are willing to pay out around £25 for a video games if not they will pirate until the price is more reasonable.

  • maxb #25 5 months ago

    Gamestation have been advertising it cheap to.not a fan of rpgs but im very tempted now.

  • Arwin #26 5 months ago

    "Ubisoft song-fest Just Dance 3 rose for the fourth week running into third place, no doubt helped by the launch of the game's PlayStation 3 version. "

    In that case, the platforms column should be updated to reflect this release perhaps? ;)

    But from the looks of that individual list, it's the Wii version that pushed it up the charts as the PS3 version isn't there in the top 40 at all.
    Edited by Arwin at 12/12/11 @ 12:10

  • miiiguel #27 5 months ago

    Sales increased when the price dropped? Talk me through that one more time...

    Maybe you missed the part it got to #1, in December, after MW. Tell me another game which acomplished that ? There are probably many games on that top which price dropped way more than Skyrim.

  • Cherub007 #28 5 months ago

    I grabbed my copy from Gamestation when I heard they had dropped the price to £22.49. Apparently they are doing a series of top games at that price in consecutive weeks (COD and Battlefield 3 have already been and gone, apparently). I asked him what else was lined up but he refused to tell me, although his face twisted into something that might have been a 'yes' when I asked him direct if Dark Souls would be reduced. He still only offered me TWO POUNDS for Deus Ex in trade-in, though, so it's not all good news.

  • Porko_Rossi #29 5 months ago

    There must be a lot of people realising the name of the game is actually "sky rim" and not "skirrum" !

  • LR100 #30 5 months ago

    Considering how Call of Duty 4 stayed at over £30 for many years, followed by similar with the other call of duty games, it's going to be a long time before MW3 gets down to £22.

  • Nevflinn #31 5 months ago

    I know this is Skyrim's big moment and all, but...
    Come ooooooonn Rayman!!
    Edited by Nevflinn at 12/12/11 @ 13:28

  • WadiumArcadium #32 5 months ago

    Whoah. Thought sales would rise massively since it's been almost half price recently. As others have said, good to see Rayman in the top 40. I loved the demo, looking forward to getting the actual game.

  • WadiumArcadium #33 5 months ago

    @Cherub007 TWO POUNDS? Go to CEX or HMV, they're much better.

  • Elando #34 5 months ago

    "I used to be at number #1, then I took an arrow in the knee..." -Modern Warfare 3

  • Stratix #35 5 months ago

    Rayman Origins is just too expensive, I know it is an amazing game, but it screams arcade game at the consumer. It needs to at least match the price of Skyrim.

    If they had sold that on XBLA and PSN and at a different time of year and it probably would have done much better.

  • Totza #36 5 months ago

    @arcam Skyrim is a much better game.

  • benjerry #37 5 months ago

    It´s been one helluva RPG autumn, with both Dark Souls and Skyrim dropping. Fantastic experiences both of em, although I am focusing on DS now until the PS3 patch drops for Skyrim.

    HURRY UP BETHESDA AND FIX YOUR GAME!

    Still, well done, and well-deserved.

  • Casserole #38 5 months ago

    Having deep, rich single player games like Skyrim, as well as Arkham City and Deus Ex being reduced to bargain bin prices so soon after release, especially whilst MW3, the most unoriginal and blatant rehash of the franchise yet is still riding high at full price, is criminal. There is 100x more content in Skyrim than MW3, no filler, all quality.