FIFA 08 triumphs in UK

By Robert Purchese Published 9 October, 2007

Halo 3 sales down 79 per cent.

FIFA 08 has rattled the net to become the UK All Formats Chart number one this week, according to ChartTrack data via GamesIndustry.biz.

It finishes above record-breaker Halo 3, which saw a 79 per cent drop in sales - helping the FIFA franchise to its third consecutive year at the top for week number 40.

Rounding out top 10 were Juiced 2: Hot Import nights, MySims, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, More Brain Training, SEGA Rally, Ratatouille, Brain Training and Forza Motorsport 2.

EA said FIFA 08 has shifted more than one million copies across Europe in its first week on sale, pushing it to the top of German and Spanish charts yesterday.

GamesIndustry.biz actively encourages facts to bully figures.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (38) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • mattigan #1 4 years ago

    The dramtic drop in H3 Sales is because every virtually 360 owner has bought a copy.

    It'll be going for £2.50 on ebay in 3 months, there's so many copies out there!
    Edited by 1 at 09/10/07 @ 09:53

  • Evil_Jez #2 4 years ago

    Am I the only one who finds the UK charts depressing

  • bengray66 #3 4 years ago

    when its released on that amount of platforms surely it would be embarrassing if they didn't get top spot!

  • Pulsar_t #4 4 years ago

    Well I hoped you learned something from that experience Kirly_Wombat :p

  • crazyhorse174 #5 4 years ago

    Is anyone actually surprised by an of this!?!

  • Steroyd #6 4 years ago

    @Evil_Jez

    No.

    @bengray

    In the multiple formats chart the PS2 Fifa outsells Halo 3, Halo 3 comes second place then 3rd and 4th spot are the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Fifa respectively.

    The wii version is down at 9th lol.

  • T4RG4 #7 4 years ago

    Can someone tell me - is it the 'mass market' that buy all these titles (except the excellent Forza2) because I cannot see why the hell Juiced 2 is in there!!

    By mass market I mean - people that dont read Eurogamer, magazines and so on but are lured by availability of titles and their genre/name?

  • Freelancepolice #8 4 years ago

    Forza 2 on offer at the moment by any chance?

  • Fab4 #9 4 years ago

    @T4RG4...never underestimate the power of scantily clad women in game advertising ;) :)

  • rob230 #10 4 years ago

    All those fools... those poor fools buying the wrong football game!! fooools ;)

  • dom6918 #11 4 years ago

    Fifa is excellent!

    I hope Seabass fixed pro evo because the demo was shocking..framerate..pinballness..ah well

  • daymouse #12 4 years ago

    "79 per cent drop"

    Thats because everyone has already bloody bought it!!! (0;

  • septimus #13 4 years ago

    As mentioned, every 360 owner has already bought it. Sales of 360's will keep H3 going.

    For the first time I don't hate FIFA. Haven't bought a football game in 6 years or more (last being Pro Evo something) and FIFA 08 is actually pretty good surprisingly. I prefer the slower more tactical approach it's taken.

    Sensi is still the best though if they would ever release it.

  • Toothball #14 4 years ago

    I haven't bought Halo 3. Not finished the second one yet.

  • nickthegun #15 4 years ago

    I cannot see why the hell Juiced 2 is in there!!

    Its due to a combination of Pimp My Ride being popular and having an advert featuring REALLY BIG TITS!

  • IAmBatman #16 4 years ago

    > Am I the only one who finds the UK charts depressing

    Probably not - there are quite a few elitist pricks who post on Eurogamer.

  • McLovin85 #17 4 years ago

    not surprised considering fifa is released of every platform known to man.
    my calculator probably has an edition somewhere...

  • jaxon58 #18 4 years ago

    @ nickthegun

    Throw into the combination the fact that it's a good game.

  • mcmonkeyplc #19 4 years ago

    Thats because " You, are all of you, VERMIN!"

  • Bigglesworth #20 4 years ago

    Halo 3 sales down 79 per cent

    Ouch, how embarassing!

  • Darren #21 4 years ago

    This year's FIFA is great; it's not perfect - your own players still tend to stand around instead of moving for the ball when you pass it - but it's a vast improvement on FIFA 07 which I just couldn't get into last year on the 360. In fact, I ended up playing the Xbox version far more, particularly as it allowed me to play as Hull City, something that FIFA 08 allows me to do at long bloody last. After SIX football games from EA on the 360 alone, they've finally released a complete version instead of the work-in-progress betas we've had prior to FIFA 08. Hurray!

  • lennon #22 4 years ago

    "Ouch, how embarassing! "

    Errrr why?

  • rhinoxious #23 4 years ago

    Juiced has TV advertising, so you have to offset the high cost of that against the sales figures.

  • rhinoxious #24 4 years ago

    79% drop, not surprising, I can only think one friend with a 360 who hasn't got a copy, so that's 6 out of 7 people 85% ownership.

    For comparison I reckon only half of them will buy PGR4.

  • Dizzy #25 4 years ago

    >Halo 3 sales down 79 per cent

    So from "astronomic" just to "uber"?

  • Dire #26 4 years ago

    @ Nick
    how is an average of 8.5 classed as doing bad in reviews. You have any idea of how the 1-10 scoring system is used?

  • deaner #27 4 years ago

    The UK charts are little measure of a games success.

    Halo 3 has only sold around twice as many copies as Resistance: Fall of Man on PS3 (5m against 2.4m). And considering there are 12m X360's out there - you can start to see that although that's a big achievement - it's not quite the phenominon among XBox gamers that the media would have you believe.

    FIFA however, has the benefit of being cross-platform. But probably wont sell too many in the long run. PES is virtually insurmountable competition worldwide.

    Gone are the days of games such as Gran Turismo selling in excess of 10m copies, bringing scores of non-gamers into the fold.

  • JYM60 #28 4 years ago

    Fifa08 ftw.

  • deaner #29 4 years ago

    Oh yeah, forgot to jam the knife in with THIS and THIS.

  • Yaz #30 4 years ago

    @deaner

    "you can start to see that although that's a big achievement - it's not quite the phenominon among XBox gamers that the media would have you believe."

    Eh? RFoM has been out since the PS3 launch (almost 1 year now), whereas Halo 3 has been out for less than 2 weeks! So yes, it is a "phenominon". :)

  • IAmBatman #31 4 years ago

    Those days are gone for the Gran Turismo series, sure.

  • deaner #32 4 years ago

    You chose not to look at the 12m X360's / 5m H3's measure, then?

    I just picked Resistance as an average FPS on a same-gen console for comparison. The way the media have been reporting it, you'd expect H3 to have sold in excess of 8m.

    Maybe Christmas will be kinder.

    The whole XBox franchise has been all smoke and mirrors. It's no secret that it's costing Microsoft millions that it's not clawing back. And games developers aren't exactly dancing in the streets, either.

    Whether or not the PS3 take off, FY 08/09 is going to be an interesting year for MS.

  • Yaz #33 4 years ago

    "You chose not to look at the 12m X360's / 5m H3's measure, then?"

    Of course I looked at the figures. 42% of all 360 owners purchased the game within the first week!!!

    List all the games which have sold millions in a week AND to such a high percentage of it's user base!

    "The way the media have been reporting it, you'd expect H3 to have sold in excess of 8m."

    No they haven't, that's how YOU choose to interpret it. 5 million representing 42% of the user base in less than 2 weeks is a fantastic achievement. So I look forward to your list of games which have sold better than Halo 3 in the first week and therefore made more than Halo'3 $300 million.

    "The whole XBox franchise has been all smoke and mirrors. It's no secret that it's costing Microsoft millions that it's not clawing back. And games developers aren't exactly dancing in the streets, either."

    Yes, I'm sure Bungie and Microsoft are simply gutted by the Halo 3 sales. *rolleyes*

    Your post was just as I expected. It shows exactly where you're coming from. So naturally it would hurt you to give credit where it's due given your deliberate negativity towards the console.

    Just the same, Halo 3's sales are a great achievement, whether you like it or not (and obviously, you don't :p).
    Edited by 5 at 09/10/07 @ 16:32

  • secombe #34 4 years ago

    FIFA 08 Wii review please!

  • deaner #35 4 years ago

    Edited 5 times?!

    Spelling, or challenged arguement?

    Yes, it is easy to be negative about the XBox brand. It's a cynical attempt by the worlds most monopolative software company to make money and further intrude into our homes, bringing with it their underhand business ethic and dedication to quality.

    It's companies like them and EA driving the creativity out of the medium and making it more like the Hollywood film industry.

    Microsoft are the Chelsea of console makers.

    And no, it's not that big an achievement. Percentages contain little statistical value. 5m copies of a game sold is not changing anyones world. Especially when it's less than half of the user-base who isn't supposed to be able to resist the franchise, and then the slaes figure drop by three-quarters.

  • Yaz #36 4 years ago

    5 times for spelling and GRAMMAR (thanks Fab4, lol!), plus an addition. And why do you care anyway?

    Thanks for your fanboy's perspective deaner, however unlike yourself, I don't have a deluded cynical attitutude towards specific companies and their products and therefore I feel no need to view games with such a distorted viewpoint. Hence I'm able to enjoy the games on offer on all systems (whether I own them or not, or like the company or not). Shame you can't say the same.

    "Microsoft are the Chelsea of console makers."

    That's excellent imo. :)

    So, I'm still waiting for your list of games deaner. Put up or shut up I always say, so where are your games which have exceeded Halo in the way I specified? :)

    And since when are ALL gamers of one console fans of one specific genre? Not everyone likes FPS, whether it's on the 360, PC, PS3 or anywhere, and not everyone who likes FPSs like Halo. And the same can be said for EVERY game in EVERY genre, so why would those on the 360 who don't like FPSs purchase Halo?

    So you can deny it all you want, but until you show why 5m in such a short time is nothing special, then your arguements are unfounded nonsense and are therefore nothing but a fanboy's rant.

    BTW, despite what I've said, I do enjoy reading fanboy rants, especially for the comic stupidity they contain. ;)

    EDIT: 1, and counting....

    EDIT: 2, for 'grammar' :D
    Edited by 2 at 10/10/07 @ 07:58

  • Fab4 #37 4 years ago

    Better get your editing stick out again Yaz...it is 'grammar' not 'grammer' ;)

  • Yaz #38 4 years ago

    ^^^ Done :D

    EDIT: Ok, that's all from me, off to work now.
    Edited by 1 at 10/10/07 @ 08:09