UK chart: Empire topples Killzone 2

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 March, 2009

Fastest-selling Total War to date.

SEGA has claimed its first UK All-Formats number one of the year in the shape of Empire: Total War, which pips Killzone 2 to the summit by around 1,600 units according to compiler Chart-Track.

Empire is SEGA's first number one since Football Manager 2009, and the fastest-selling Total War game yet, eclipsing Rome and Medieval II by almost two-to-one.

Like FM2009, it also achieves this despite a simultaneous launch on Steam, although its 4th March (Wednesday) release also gave it a bit more time to find its footing.

Chart-Track has said that Killzone 2 sales dropped 58 per cent, but that still kept it neck-and-neck, while Wii Fit rose to three, Tom Clancy's HAWX flew in at four and last week's second-place game, Halo Wars, fell to five with a 54 per cent dip in sales.

Professor Layton, Street Fighter IV, FIFA 09, Call of Duty: World at War and Ben 10: Alien Force make up the top ten.

The other new entry this week is New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis at 23, as recent releases including 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (last week's 22) and RACE Pro (27 last week) slipped out of the top 40 entirely.

Otherwise the usual candidates do the usual shuffle, with Wii Play, GTAIV, Mario Kart Wii, Mario & Sonic, Guitar Hero: World Tour and others in or around the top 20, while there are re-entries at the foot of the chart for Fallout 3 and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga.

No prizes for guessing what will be number one next week though, with Resident Evil 5 set to launch on Friday 13th March.

Check out the full chart below.

This Week Last Week Title Platform(s)
1 New entry Empire: Total War PC
2 1 Killzone 2 PS3
3 4 Wii Fit Wii
4 New entry Tom Clancy's HAWX PS3, Xbox 360
5 2 Halo Wars Xbox 360
6 5 Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS
7 3 Street Fighter IV Xbox 360, PS3
8 7 FIFA 09 PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
9 8 Call of Duty: World at War PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
10 9 Ben 10: Alien Force Wii, DS, PS2, PSP
11 6 SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection Xbox 360, PS3
12 14 Disney's Bolt PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
13 11 Silent Hill: Homecoming Xbox 360, PS3
14 12 Wii Play Wii
15 13 Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360, PS3, PC
16 10 Mario Kart Wii Wii
17 16 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii, DS
18 17 Guitar Hero: World Tour Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii
19 19 Need for Speed Undercover PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
20 15 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS
21 21 My Fitness Coach Wii
22 23 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training DS
23 New entry New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis Wii
24 25 Carnival: Funfair Games Wii
25 33 LittleBigPlanet PS3
26 29 Tomb Raider: Underworld PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS
27 26 Football Manager 2009 PC, PSP
28 30 Puzzler Collection Wii, DS, PSP
29 28 LEGO Indiana Jones: Original Adventures PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
30 39 Halo 3 Xbox 360
31 20 F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin PC, Xbox 360, PS3
32 24 The House of the Dead: Overkill Wii
33 31 LEGO Batman: The Videogame PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS
34 32 Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 PC, Xbox 360, PS3
35 18 Warhamer 40,000: Dawn of War II PC
36 New entry Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir DS
37 Re-entry Fallout 3 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
38 Re-entry LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS
39 35 WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, PSP, PS2
40 36 Saints Row 2 Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Leisure software charts compiled by Gfk Chart-Track, ©2008 ELSPA (UK) Ltd.

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 (37) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Wastelander #1 3 years ago

    Killzone 2 beaten by an exclusive PC game...
    OH THE HUGE MANATEE!

  • matrim83 #2 3 years ago

    PC gaming is dead.

    Ohwaitaminute!

  • bad09 #3 3 years ago

    I picked up KZ2 at the weekend, very good FPS if you're not bored to death of FPS already, not played much but online seems fun as well.

  • matrim83 #4 3 years ago

    Also good to see TR U still hanging in there, criminally underrated title. Didnt Eidos bitch a lot about how low sales were for this?

  • Doctor_What #5 3 years ago

    I can't believe that Halo 3 is at number 30. Hasn't everyone who could possibly want the game already bought it by now? How few units do you have to shift to get in at that position? It's a reasonable enough game, but still...

  • makeamazing #6 3 years ago

    The biggest selling PC game that lots of people were not able to play on launch! If any more major PC games are handled as badly as Empire was then I'm afraid they are putting the PC gaming format at risk! Took me 24 hours to actually start playing the game after purchasing, and there were many more who couldnt play it two days after buying it. Absolutely rubbish launch.

  • rogermellie #7 3 years ago

    very good FPS if you're not bored to death of FPS

    That statement could apply to any genre. You need to find a new hobby.

  • bad09 #8 3 years ago

    "That statement could apply to any genre. You need to find a new hobby."

    Nah, admittedly I'm jaded after this gen but I couldn't leave my DC, PS1, PS2 and emulators! :)

    But really KZ2 does nothing new to FPS, sure it does it VERY well, but it's nothing we haven't seen for the last couple of years. But hey it's still quite good. I probably won't bother with the single player tho, it was mainly bought for online GUNS as Gears2 is just too broken and I like a little online death dealing.
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/09 @ 09:18

  • Bitkari #9 3 years ago

    WHERE'S YOUR GOD NOW?

    ^_^

    Gratz, Creative Assembly!

  • menage #10 3 years ago

    @Wastelander

    I think there are like 100 billion more PC's out there then PS3's:p

  • Vice.Destroyer #11 3 years ago

    @menage, it may seem that way, but your maths is way, way out there.

    /pedantic joke. Please, nobody point out that menage was joking. I GET it.
    :)

  • Eraysor #12 3 years ago

    Go Empire, the PC lives!

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #13 3 years ago

    REALLY good to see a PC game get the no 1 spot, and also REALLY good to see CA's games going from strength to strength. Haven't bought Empire yet, as I've got a dozen games on the go and still knee-deep in Medieval II, but I'll definitely be picking it up later this year. It looks fantastic.

  • des #14 3 years ago

    PC game on top!?Madness

  • hiddenranbir #15 3 years ago

    TOTAL WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

  • rogermellie #16 3 years ago

    @bad09

    Take a break from games and you'll come back refreshed!

    I rarely play on-line nowadays so I can't say why Gears 2 is broken. Loved Gears 2 / Killzone 2 apart from the Call of Duty style intervals. Wasn't expecting much from either other than solid shooters with crap stories.

    I'm really pleased this game has sold. It's a great series.

  • TopKatt #17 3 years ago

    Very tempted to get Empire. I don't really play a lot of PC games, purely because I spend most of my working day in front of a PC so prefer to sit in front of the tv in an armchair when chilling out at home.

  • MrChuckles #18 3 years ago

    Empire is great, i wanted to buy it on Steam to give the most cash to the developer, but when it's 39.99 for a digital download compared to 24.99 to ordering an actual copy to be sent to my door which i register on Steam anyway, Digital Download seems rather expensive!

  • roz123 #19 3 years ago

    Glad to see Empires up there, from all the reviews it sounds like it deserves it. I would love to see what these charts would look like if they included Steam and other digital distribution services.

  • bmxbandit #20 3 years ago

    Fair play to Sega, nice to see them getting some good sales ... especially with a PC title. RE5 is going to clean up in next weeks sales though, looks like the PS3 version is the format to get ... leading the pre-orders on all major sites..

  • Rash' #21 3 years ago

    Great to see LBP still hanging in there.

  • Les #22 3 years ago

    "Digital Download seems rather expensive!"

    I got the Steam version in the end. Am still playing Rome (base game, not the expansions) but when I could get Rome, Rome's expansions, Medieval II and its expansion as well as Empire for a combined €60 it was too good a deal to pass up on as I was planning to get those eventually*. And it ran better than expected on my 1.5 year old iMac (2.6GHz Core 2, 4GB) using boot camp.

    If you just want Empire, €50 is rather steep though, I agree.

    * except of course for Rome which I owned already. But even with already owning Rome it's a good deal IMO. I no longer have to put the install disc in the drive for example if I want to play the game. ;)
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/09 @ 12:18

  • bad09 #23 3 years ago

    @ rogermellie

    Yeah I'm trying to take a break from this gen playing more old stuff, but I can't take a complete break I love games to much! Still a few games in the few months I want, KOF, Riddick, Ghostbusters, so current gen isn't dead completely :)

    Gears 2 was a great SP game but online was broken because you had to wait an age to get a game, even when you did manage to get one the lag was terrible (even with my nice new 20-meg virgin), so off it went to be replaced by KZ2. Like I said KZ2 is a really good game especially online, it's just I've played too many shooters this gen and KZ2 does nothing new even if it does do things well, and TBH, COD4 killed any following FPS game for me (except L4D), I'm hoping another stretch in Butcher Bay will rekindle my love of FPS tho.

  • Petulant_Radish #24 3 years ago

    Here's my handle

  • BobsUncle #25 3 years ago

    @Donbhoy

    Pretty much every PC game is available for pirate download before it's released.

  • Widge #26 3 years ago

    I might check out Medieval 2 at some point, want to get stuck into a Total War game.

  • Branoic #27 3 years ago

    Very good news! Now that they've got us all to buy the game, they can concentrate on, you know, actually *finishing* development!

  • UncleLou #28 3 years ago

    Empire: Total War seems a bit too hard to get into for me (going by the demo), even though I generally like Strategy games such as CIV.

    Bear in mind that you'll automatically get a lot of practice with the land battles, and that there are even different difficulty sliders for the campaign (which is the strategic, Civ-like game) and the real-time battles as featured in the demo.

  • Les #29 3 years ago

    "Empire: Total War seems a bit too hard to get into for me (going by the demo), even though I generally like Strategy games such as CIV. However, I'm glad that it has sold well and given another boost to the PC market."

    When I first started playing the series (first Medieval) I started out with mainly playing on the campaign map and auto-resolving most of the battles (coming from a Civ background myself as well). But as I started to get to grips with the game, I started to enjoy the actual battles more and more. And once you get more used to them, it'll save you huge numbers of troops vs. auto-resolving as well. ;)

  • DoctorZoidberg #30 3 years ago

    @ Les

    Is that Empire that works well on your iMac?

    I have a year old iMac (silver one). I bought Empire with more of a hope it will run well under boot camp. I think this is the game that will make me finally use boot camp and install windows. I have XP and Vista, would vista be the better option? Ta.

    (sorry to hijack a little!)

  • Rodchenko #31 3 years ago

    Is everybody here indeed disciplined enough to ignore the baits from both farticus and evilfox or are those two just on too many ignore lists?

  • Les #32 3 years ago

    "@ Les

    Is that Empire that works well on your iMac?"

    Yeah. Wasn't really in the market for it yet but wanted to try the demo and see how such a new game would function on my 1.5 year old silver model. I was pleasantly surprised with how the demo ran on my iMac at 1900*1200 with medium to high visual settings. Figured the retail version would work even better but haven't tried that one yet (has just finished downloading but I downloaded it in virtualization mode so can't play it without a reboot).

    I'm not what would be called a graphics whore around here so I can live with the fact that I can't maximize all visual settings and still get a good framerate.

    And while on Steam for the demo my eye fell over the Total War package deal and it was just too good to resist so I got it after finding out that it would run.

    "I think this is the game that will make me finally use boot camp and install windows. I have XP and Vista, would vista be the better option? Ta."

    I used boot camp before I got Parallels but have rarely used it since (which also meant I didn't play PC games much anymore) until I decided to try out this demo. Which led to all kinds of problems as I had installed XP SP3 through Parallels in the meantime which meant I had to remove SP3 or otherwise booting into Windows wouldn't work anymore. But uninstalling didn't work so I did a 'repair' (IMHO a re-install shouldn't be called a repair) which somehow screwed up my existing anti-virus software (AVG) which I couldn't get ridd of anymore (through Add/Remove programs as I wanted to try out a new virus+firewall solution). Re-installed AVG, then removed it but that lead to my admin rights getting screwed up so all of a sudden as admin I wasn't allowed to create network connections anymore amongst other things. Wiped my Windows install and started from scratch again and now it works fine (from a Windows POV). If games like Empire would ever be available for Mac, I'll never look back to the crap that's Windows.

    As for the XP vs. Vista, don't have the latter so can't say much about that other than what I read on the internet and that seems to suggest that XP still has better performance.

  • DoctorZoidberg #33 3 years ago

    Thanks les. Appreciate that.

    Done a bit of poking around, and the ATi HD2600 inside my iMac seems up to the job. But Like you, I'm not a graphics whore at all. I can totally live with everything on super low if it has to be.

    Just got to find some time now to sort out the installation.

    I really wish more company's would make games mac compatible. I have to applaud EA, they seem to be taking the lead here.

  • Burkey123 #34 3 years ago

    I can't believe I haven't bought Killzone yet. I really should but I think I'll buy Madworld instead.

  • Tehren #35 3 years ago

    Fantastic. Haven't sparked my copy up yet, think I'll leave it till the weekend.

  • Les #36 3 years ago

    "Done a bit of poking around, and the ATi HD2600 inside my iMac seems up to the job. But Like you, I'm not a graphics whore at all. I can totally live with everything on super low if it has to be."

    Tried the full version. It restricts some of the more advanced features, they probably added some between the demo and retail versions. It works well enough on medium settings for my tastes. I am coming from Rome TW though.

  • DoctorZoidberg #37 3 years ago

    I loved Rome TW. It was the last "proper" game my PC could run. I still have a flitter every now and again. The balance was perfect in my opinion.

    If empire looks like Rome then I will be more than happy to be honest.

  • Les #38 3 years ago

    Btw, came across this site:

    [link url=http://www.easydriverupd ate.com/blog/driver-update/imac-boot-camp-graphics-driver-up date
    ]http://ww w.easydriverupdate.com/blog/dri...[/link]

    Tells you how to install the apparently 'proper' drivers for the graphics card inside your iMac. Have tried it and it looks like it has indeed improved performance a bit. The automatic installer didn't work in XP (at least not on my set-up) but manually browsing to the driver file worked fine.