Call of Duty still dominant in UK

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 December, 2008

But LittleBigPlanet starts to sell.

There's no change at the top of the All-Format UK Charts this week as Call of Duty: World at War, Mario Kart Wii and FIFA 09 hold firm in the top three positions.

Unsurprisingly, then, Ladbrokes has cut the odds on COD being next week's Christmas No. 1 to 1-3 for, and Chart-Track said last night that the gap between the World War II shooter and Nintendo's kart racer is some 27,000 units.

In other words, it's all but inevitable, with Activision gunning for the longest uninterrupted run-in to a Christmas No. 1 (six weeks), according to CT's stats-men. If Nintendo does somehow overhaul it, though, it will claim its first festive topper since Ocarina of Time.

In the absence of new releases, there wasn't even much movement outside the top three, with the likes of Need for Speed, Tomb Raider and Guitar Hero shuffling places in the top ten melee.

There was some bright news for Sony on a dim week, however, as LittleBigPlanet sales leapt 58 per cent, dragging Sackboy's opus from 29th up to 16th in the All-Formats chart, while the Individual Formats list puts it at sixth - the highest-placing PS3 game, including Activision's dominant FPS.

Otherwise, big movers were Sonic Unleashed (up from 33 to 12) and Quantum of Solace (up from 27 to 13), while there were re-entries for Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party (25), Cooking Guide (32), Force Unleashed (37) and Lips (39).

Check out the full All-Formats list for the week ending 13th December below.

This Week Last Week Title Platform(s)
1 1 Call of Duty: World at War PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
2 2 Mario Kart Wii Wii
3 3 FIFA 09 PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
4 5 Need for Speed Undercover PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
5 4 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training DS
6 7 Fallout 3 PC, Xbox 360, PS3
7 9 Wii Play Wii
8 8 Wii Fit Wii
9 10 Guitar Hero: World Tour Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii
10 6 Tomb Raider: Underworld PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
11 13 LEGO Indiana Jones PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
12 33 Sonic Unleashed Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii
13 27 Quantum of Solace PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
14 11 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii, DS
15 12 LEGO Batman PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
16 29 LittleBigPlanet PS3
17 15 Gears of War 2 Xbox 360
18 14 WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, PS2
19 17 Far Cry 2 PC, Xbox 360, PS3
20 30 Prince of Persia Xbox 360, PS3
21 24 Kung Fu Panda PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
22 28 More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima DS
23 26 Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City Wii
24 16 Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 PC, Xbox 360, PS3
25 Re-entry Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party DS, Wii
26 20 Resistance 2 PS3
27 18 Carnival: Funfair Games Wii
28 32 Football Manager 2009 PC, PSP
29 23 Nintendogs: Lab & Friends DS
30 36 Mirror's Edge PC, Xbox 360, PS3
31 21 Wii Music Wii
32 Re-entry Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? DS
33 35 Shaun White Snowboarding Xbox 360, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS
34 24 SEGA Superstars Tennis Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
35 38 WALL-E PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
36 40 SingStar ABBA PS3, PS2
37 Re-entry Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, PS2
38 25 Guinness World Records: The Videogame Wii, DS
39 Re-entry Lips Xbox 360
40 37 High School Musical 3: Senior Year DS
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

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

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Comments (27) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • oxymoron #1 3 years ago

    first!

    lbp ftw!

  • Mooks #2 3 years ago

    What a depressing Christmas chart was expecting to see both Starcraft 2 and FEAR 2 in there the Call of Duty franchise is being milked of any remaining goodness im getting sick of the series.

  • keyboardmonkey #3 3 years ago

    ^
    That could be the only time LBP is first ;-)

  • Eraysor #4 3 years ago

    Nice to see LBP selling after heavy advertising and discounting finally gets it off the shelves. It's a shame that Sonic Unleashed has started selling though, I was hoping it would plummet out of the chart.

    Oh, and no Fire Emblem DS in the top 40, probably because practically nowhere has a copy. I went looking in about 8 different game/entertainment shops last Saturday and I couldn't find a single one.
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/08 @ 09:04

  • tonynibbles #5 3 years ago

    Yet more proof that the general public doesn't have a fecking clue. "Quantum of Solace (up from 27 to 13)".

    Sigh...

  • Inigo #6 3 years ago

    For 20 pound i may give LBP a try, i just worried that it will come across as a second rate platformer compared to games like Mario Galaxy.

  • Widge #7 3 years ago

    Starcraft and FEAR 2 are out?

  • CallousB #8 3 years ago

    Top 40 by format-

    01 (01) WII Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
    02 (02) NDS Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (Nintendo)
    03 (03) 360 Call Of Duty: World At War (Activision Blizzard)
    04 (05) WII Wii Play (Nintendo)
    05 (04) WII Wii Fit (Nintendo)
    06 (21) PS3 LittleBigPlanet (Sony Computer Ent.)
    07 (06) PS3 Call Of Duty: World At War (Activision Blizzard)
    08 (07) 360 Gears Of War 2 (Microsoft)
    09 (08) 360 Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
    10 (14) NDS More Brain Training From Dr Kawashima (Nintendo)
    11 (13) WII Animal Crossing: Let's Go To The City (Nintendo)
    12 (19) 360 Kung Fu Panda (Activision Blizzard)
    13 (20) 360 Lego Indiana Jones: Original Adventures (Lucasarts)
    14 (10) PS3 Resistance 2 (Sony Computer Ent.)
    15 (34) WII Rayman Raving Rabbids Tv Party (Ubisoft)
    16 (18) WII Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games (Sega)
    17 (15) 360 Need For Speed: Undercover (Electronic Arts)
    18 (12) NDS Nintendogs: Lab & Friends (Nintendo)
    19 (11) WII Wii Music (Nintendo)
    20 (31) NDS Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What To Eat? (Nintendo)
    21 (24) PS3 Fifa 09 (Electronic Arts)
    22 (25) PS3 Need For Speed: Undercover (Electronic Arts)
    23 (29) 360 Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft)
    24 (37) 360 Lips (Microsoft)
    25 (32) PC Football Manager 2009 (Sega)
    26 (23) 360 Fifa 09 (Electronic Arts)
    27 (38) PS3 Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)
    28 (16) WII Guinness World Records: The Videogame (Warner Bros. Interactive)
    29 (__) WII Sonic Unleashed (Sega)
    30 (26) NDS High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney Interactive Studios)
    31 (28) 360 Project Gotham Racing 4 (Microsoft)
    32 (27) WII Carnival: Funfair Games (Take 2)
    33 (17) 360 Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos)
    34 (39) NDS Mario Kart Ds (Nintendo)
    35 (22) NDS Big Brain Academy (Nintendo)
    36 (__) WII High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance (Disney Interactive Studios)
    37 (__) WII Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision Blizzard)
    38 (__) NDS New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
    39 (33) 360 Sega Superstars Tennis (Sega)
    40 (36) WII Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft)

  • Artemus #9 3 years ago

    CoD still selling very well despite costing twice the price of most of the other games at the moment.

  • Lebowski #10 3 years ago

    It warms my heart that people are still buying Fallout 3 - proves the gaming masses do have some taste. (Either that or it was £20 in Gamestation).

  • bodypopper #11 3 years ago

    Does this include bundles? There are a few LBP/PS3 pairings in shops it seems.

  • b00n #12 3 years ago

    I think in the end these charts don't give you a complete picture. For example, they don't take into account possible lower prices, bundles or price cuts (which i think happened with LBP). So it would be nice to see 'value' instead of 'volume' also for once, but probably not something they are able to track.
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/08 @ 11:14

  • chris_ace #13 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 11:55:13 13-12-2011

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #14 3 years ago

    "yep sony, thats what can happen when your game is dropped to £20 and bundled with the games console"

    Fixed.

    /Runs

    Greats adverts by the way. The aussie one really makes me chuckle.
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/08 @ 12:12

  • IneptPercy #15 3 years ago

    They are running a lot of adverts for the PS3 at the Cinema, I go at least weekly and have seen a PS3 advert every time for a few months, they have covered Buzz, LBP, Resistence 2 and Motorstorm (maybe more I have forgotten).

  • Gurgeh #16 3 years ago

    Another take on LBP sales across the pond:

    [link url=http://www.gamasutra.com/v iew/feature/3882/npd_behind_the_numbers_november_.php?page=3
    ]http://ww w.gamasutra.com/view/feature/38...[/link]

    "Short of Metal Gear Solid 4 in June 2008, it would appear that no exclusive software has really driven hardware sales. Even Sony's flagship holiday title, LittleBigPlanet, only managed 141,000 units during November." [sales in October were 205,000 units]

    For comparison in November: Gears 2 sold 1,560,000; Call of Duty sold 1,410,000 on X360 and 597,000 on PS3; Resistance 2 sold 385,000.
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/08 @ 13:03

  • Doctor_What #17 3 years ago

    Good to see LBP picking up. I'm hoping for MM's sake that it works with the Nintendo long-tail sales idea. It's one of those games that gets better as more and more people put time into it. Some of the user-created things are amazing already, so I'm regularly dipping in for a bit more play time with the cute little critters.

    I guess price cutting does have a huge impact on these charts. I can't justify to myself buying a game for £40 when I know that in three (or sometimes far fewer) months it will be £20-25. I picked up Fallout 3 at £20 - it's good, but not my usual fare so wasn't prepared to take a punt for £35, but for £20 I figured it was worth a go.

    It's a real shame that crap like the Sonic game sells so well compared to some of the other, far better, titles in the charts.

  • DrDamn #18 3 years ago

    @Gurgeh
    The userbase in the US is well over 2:1 in the 360's favour - which puts those stats into perspective a little.

    Official pack-in stuff is not counted, though strangely Wii Play still continues to be counted as a game.

    The price of LBP in some places has obviously had a good effect on sales but can anyone name a big title on the PS3/360 this Christmas which hasn't been sold at < £30 at some point? People still have to want to spend money on it.

    @b00n
    That's the sort of spin Sony like to put on hardware sales - sure we only sold half as many consoles, but we charged over twice as much so we win! Aside from the obvious trouble gathering the stats you would also have problems separating retailer and publisher discounts. It would just get too messy. Also should a title selling 100,000 copies really beat one selling 102,700 because it was a quid more expensive?

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #19 3 years ago

    Despite how nice LBP is, it's not going to get the Nintendo long tail no matter how much you want it to.

    The reason the DS & Wii are as big as they are is because of those long tail games like Wii Fit that appeal to non-gamers. Those games continue to sell because every time a new non-gamer buys a Wii, they buy 1 or 2 of those games with it. The age of the game is of no concern. My aunt has just picked up a DS with Brain Training just like my Wife and mother in law did last year.

    LBP and the PS3 just don't have the perpetual cycle going on.

  • ronuds #20 3 years ago

    So nothing to look forward to between now and Christmas then? Bah!!!

  • DrDamn #21 3 years ago

    @SpaceMidget
    So when the PS3 comes down in price and become a bit more mass market what else are these people going to buy with the machine. It's not actually that mass markety a game tbh, but that's not so obvious to the mass market. :)

  • penhalion #22 3 years ago

    Had to laugh at the article title.

    People are simply buying anything because there are no new releases until 2009! Heck even Quantum of Solace has outsold LBP! And just look at the jump Sonic has made from 33 no less!

    I hate it when EG lie to get me to read articles.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #23 3 years ago

    "@SpaceMidget
    So when the PS3 comes down in price and become a bit more mass market what else are these people going to buy with the machine. It's not actually that mass markety a game tbh, but that's not so obvious to the mass market. :)"

    Well that hasn't happened yet has it so I can't say. I'm talking about now.

    However the 360 is at mass market prices now and doesn't get a long tail on it software. Neither did the PS2. That isn't really my point. The point is that Wii and DS are selling to people that never bought systems before, even the biggest selling PS2. It's these people that are buying the same 4 or 5 bits of software time and again on the Ninty systems.

    I can't see the PS3 & LBP getting the same effect even with the price drop. Something like Singstar might though.

    Who knows.

  • DrDamn #24 3 years ago

    @SpaceMidget
    How can you talk about a long tail but only in relation to now? :)

    I think both 360 and PS3 need a different sort of title for the long tail. Then again they tend to work off different models with the releases. Lots of sequels where the next one is bigger, better, more badass etc. making buying the last one nonsensical. The sequels to Nintendo titles with long tails are more of the same only different, rarely sequels on the same machine.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #25 3 years ago

    Well, when I say 'Now' I mean the near future based on today's variables, rather than assuming that a price cut is coming, which like I said won't make a difference imho.

    I mean all we're talking about here is LBP staying in the charts (or near enough) week on week. That kinda starts now doesn't it? =]

  • Cloudane #26 3 years ago

    ronuds - "So nothing to look forward to between now and Christmas then? Bah!!!"

    Thank goodness for that.

    Now we can actually, you know, play the bloody games!

  • Bumhug360 #27 3 years ago

    @b00n

    Individual formats by units

    1 1 MARIO KART WII WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    2 2 DR KAWASHIMA'S BRAIN TRAINING DS NINTENDO NINTENDO
    3 3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR XB360 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
    5 4 WII PLAY WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    4 5 WII FIT WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    21 6 LITTLEBIGPLANET PS3 SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
    6 7 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR PS3 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
    7 8 GEARS OF WAR 2 XB360 MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
    8 9 FALLOUT 3 XB360 BETHESDA SOFTWORKS BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
    14 10 MORE BRAIN TRAINING FROM DR KAWASHIMA

    Individual formats by value

    1 1 MARIO KART WII WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    2 2 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR XB360 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
    3 3 WII FIT WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    4 4 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR PS3 ACTIVISION ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
    5 5 DR KAWASHIMA'S BRAIN TRAINING DS NINTENDO NINTENDO
    6 6 GEARS OF WAR 2 XB360 MICROSOFT MICROSOFT
    13 7 LITTLEBIGPLANET PS3 SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
    7 8 RESISTANCE 2 PS3 SONY COMPUTER ENT. SONY COMPUTER ENT.
    10 9 ANIMAL CROSSING: LET'S GO TO THE CITY WII NINTENDO NINTENDO
    9 10 NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERCOVER XB360 EA GAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS