UK charts: MW2 rewrites the record books

By Robert Purchese Published 16 November, 2009

Activision's game sells staggeringly well.

Activision's Modern Warfare 2 has become the biggest game in UK history, selling over 1.7m copies and generating £67.4m in just five days.

To put that in perspective, MW2 grossed almost double what the entire UK entertainment software market made last week. Over 1 million copies of the better-selling Xbox 360 version alone were shifted.

Modern Warfare 2, therefore, trounced Grand Theft Auto IV's opening week record of 927,000 units.

Unsurprisingly, no other game was anywhere near Infinity Ward's this week. Last week's leader, Wii Fit Plus, fell to fourth, as Wii Sports Resort climbed into second and FIFA 10 followed in third.

Forza Motorsport accelerated to fifth, tailed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games in sixth, LEGO Batman in seventh, Mario Kart Wii in eighth and and Pure in ninth.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City rounds out the list in 10th.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex Edition on Wii is the only other newcomer of note in 19th.

Tropico 3 arrived in 13th on the PC-specific chart, but missed altogether on 360.

This Week Last Week Title Platform(s)
1 New entry Modern Warfare 2 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
2 3 Wii Sports Resort Wii
3 2 FIFA 10 PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
4 1 Wii Fit Plus Wii
5 6 Forza Motorsport 3 Xbox 360
6 7 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games DS, Wii
7 14 LEGO Batman DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
8 12 Mario Kart Wii Wii
9 23 Pure PC, PS3, Xbox 360
10 8 Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City Xbox 360
11 9 Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 PC, PS3, Xbox 360
12 4 Football Manager 2010 PC, PSP
13 5 Dragon Age: Origins PC, PS3, Xbox 360
14 17 Professor Layton and Pandora's Box DS
15 16 SingStar: Take That PS2, PS3
16 11 WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2010 PS3, PS2, PSP, Xbox 360
17 13 Need for Speed: Shift PC, PS3, PSP, Xbox 360
18 20 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves PS3
19 New entry Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex Edition Wii
20 10 Tekken 6 PS3, Xbox 360
21 18 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii
22 19 Wii Fit Wii
23 32 LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
24 29 Wii Play Wii
25 31 Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training DS
26 Re-entry Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS
27 21 DJ Hero PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
28 34 SEGA Superstars Tennis DS, PS3, PS2, Wii, Xbox 360
29 15 Borderlands PS3, Xbox 360
30 24 EyePet PS3
31 35 Star Wars the Clone Wars: Republic Heroes DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
32 New entry Hasbro Family Game Night: Volume 2 Wii
33 25 Halo 3: ODST Xbox 360
34 36 LEGO Indiana Jones DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
35 40 Rhythm Paradise DS
36 27 Grand Theft Auto IV Xbox 360, PS3, PC
37 30 Guitar Hero 5 PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
38 Re-entry Rabbids Go Home Wii, DS
39 26 Ghostbusters DS, PC, PS2 , PS3, PSP, Wii, Xbox 360
40 33 Style Boutique DS

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

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 (63) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • david78 #1 2 years ago

    surprise

  • guernican #2 2 years ago

    Just goes to show... perhaps they don't need the PC crowd any more. More expensive to support, and more vocal when they make a balls of it. Whereas the console crowd are a closed sales channel.

  • GamerG #3 2 years ago

    No surprise its number 1 but 1.7m of sales in the UK alone?

    To put that in perspective Uncharted got to number 1 in the US (pop 300m) for a whole month with 500k of sales! This was just 5 days in the UK!

  • bluem4gic #4 2 years ago

    I will be laughing when they start charging micropayments for everyone on the console version. Then will be see who is bitching. The biggest market is PC market and always will be
    Edited by 2 at 16/11/09 @ 11:11

  • Teamallstar #5 2 years ago

    Did they even bother releasing it on the PS3?

    ;)

  • miiiguel #6 2 years ago

    "biggest market is PC market and always will be "

    Emotions always trumps facts.

  • Ace_McCloud #7 2 years ago

    Wow

  • GamerG #8 2 years ago

    after reading the article it seems like it shifted quite a lot of hardware as well as the X360 Pure & Batman games which are included in many 360 bundles doubled in sales and made the top 10.

    Also Forza sales up 22% which is great news,

  • Beige_Alert #9 2 years ago

    Have they done a lot of advertising, tv ads or such, for this game in the UK? I know it was highly anticipated but this level of sales is impressive.
    Isn't the Uncharted comparison is a bit off though, that game was a PS3 exclusive, this is all formats.

  • GamerG #10 2 years ago

    is the biggest market the PC market simply because there are more PC's?

    I wonder how many of those PC's have the graphics cards and processor's required to play these games?

  • bluem4gic #11 2 years ago

    @miiiguel

    You seem to not understand the games market. America, Japan and Europe is not the whole world. All console companies have had poor success in launching their consoles in China, Brazil, India they just don't sell.

    My friend works in the czech republic, PC gaming is huge out there. Why because console games are way too expensive

    Why do you think companies still release PC games when they know it will get pirated? Because there is a bigger market out there than their consoles.

    People need PCs to do work, they don't need a console

  • Kyledanutmeg #12 2 years ago

    Well deserved Great game.

  • Xerx3s #13 2 years ago

    "Emotions always trumps facts. "

    Hmm, no, not really. You think of Europe as the countries that are Americanised and thus console oriented but there is much more than that. You also can't simply compare the topselling console game to the PC market, they simply are two different markets. The PC has a flood of games (much more variety) that aren't on consoles and it has a much deeper sales model. So instead of the model where console games sell big on day one and then die off - maybe followed by a 'classics' thing - PC games sell over a much longer time, sometimes having up to 7 or 8 cycles.

    Imo the PC market simply has too much competition for a single game to make a killing.

  • GamerG #14 2 years ago

    @bluem4gic

    so how many copies of MW2 on PC sold in the Cheq republic then? in fact you can add the whole of Eastern Europe if you like.

  • mcmonkeyplc #15 2 years ago

    So this is how gaming dies, with raptourious applause.

    Damn you Acti(rapingcunt)vision. Your time of failure will come, like EA before you.


    Edit: Says the person that has 2 copies of the game in one household!
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 11:21

  • alimokrane #16 2 years ago

    What's the split 360/PS3 please ? just curious

  • markymark22 #17 2 years ago

    I've a feeling this game shifted consoles for the ps3. 3 of my friends alone got a new slim with mw2 on saturday! Now i dont have to buy it.... Excellent!

  • Stormflood #18 2 years ago

    After finishing MW2 in a couple of evenings, I felt completely underwhelmed and short-changed by the experience. But that's just my opinion.

  • Quint2020 #19 2 years ago

    "I WON'T PAY £54.99 FOR A NEW GAME, IF WE LET ACTIVISION GET AWAY WITH THIS IT COULD EASILY BECOME THE STANDARD RRP, BLAH BLAH BLAH"

    ....... Oh whatever I'll just buy it anyway.

  • Darren #20 2 years ago

    So if over 1 million of those 1.7.miilion CoD: MW2 sales were for the Xbox 360, I'm willing to bet that the majority of the remaining 700,000 or so were for the PS3? That would leave a depressingly small number for the PC version then which explains why there was so little thought put into it compared with the earlier games.

    Does anyone know how many copies the PC version sold?

  • TenMinJoe #21 2 years ago

    Since Sainsbury's are selling it for £26, which we assume is below cost price, does this really count?

  • des #22 2 years ago

    PC version is at number 5...boycott lol
    And that is without steam sales...
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 11:35

  • roz123 #23 2 years ago

    @GamerG

    Its pretty much impossible to tell how many units are sold on PC these days as the big digital distributors such as steam are not included in any charts. You just have to look at games like WoW (which will probably make more money then MW2 over the next 12 months) to see that the PC market is massive.

  • kinky_mong #24 2 years ago

    @Stormflood: You should try the Spec-Ops and multiplayer then. Considering I hated CoD4's multiplayer I was extremely surprised how addictive I'm finding it this time round.

  • keano #25 2 years ago

    "Since Sainsbury's are selling it for £26, which we assume is below cost price, does this really count? "

    but supermarkets still have to buy it in at the wholesale price from publisher...prob £35 or so with usual 30% or so increase to rrp

  • miiiguel #26 2 years ago

    Hmm, no, not really. You think of Europe as the countries that are Americanised and thus console oriented but there is much more than that.

    I'm aware of that, but maybe where you say "Americanised", you should say "where avid consumers are" ?

  • TonyCocaCola #27 2 years ago

    For some reason this game really took me by surprise. I mean, I knew it was gonna be big but not this big!

    Even one of my friends who isnt even a big gamer was ranting on about queing up at midnight for it.

    Maybe i wasnt paying enough attention because of borderlands and dragon age.. I will get it soon once i deal with the blight.

  • Darren #28 2 years ago

    Considering that PC MW2 is £39.99 on Steam, I'd like to think that the majority of people out there were more sensible and opted for the cheaper (by £8!) disc version?
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 13:17

  • MasterNameless #29 2 years ago

    "I will get it soon once i deal with the blight."

    As someone who is about 6 hours into Dragon Age, this is still a monstrously epic task! May take you a while I think. I've hardly touched MW2 due to this game too.

  • Xerx3s #30 2 years ago

    "I'm aware of that, but maybe where you say "Americanised", you should say "where avid consumers are" ? "

    Being Americanised extends much further than just being a consumer, obviously everything is about consumerism. Being Americanised is about mentality and such (i.e. the type of games that sell well).

  • Gaol #31 2 years ago

    Sales for this will be heavily front loaded, people are buying at the £26-£35 rate thinking that the price for the release will never come down again and it will stick at £30+ used like CoD4. 'Better get in quick".

    While I agree you can't go far wrong taking the £26 limited offer, I'd be surprised if this wasn't the first CoD to see a quick decrease in it's selling price. There's so many sold I expect to see a glut of these on ebay post Christmas, from people who will quickly be finished with 1 player/spec ops and have little interest in the competitive side.

  • frugtkompot #32 2 years ago

    What is 'Pure' all of the sudden doing on there?

  • uzivatel #33 2 years ago

    I really want to buy the 360 version of Tropico 3, but I need 360 demo first. The PC demo is fun, but I want to see if the 360 controls are good and if the performance and image quality is not worse than on my PC.

  • Toothball #34 2 years ago

    Last week I bought no copies of Modern Warfare two, and a second copy of Forza for my dad's birthday present. I'm not even boycotting it, I'm just not interested. Go me!

  • spekkeh #35 2 years ago

    You seem to not understand the games market. America, Japan and Europe is not the whole world. All console companies have had poor success in launching their consoles in China, Brazil, India they just don't sell.

    This should read all GAME companies have had poor success in China, Brazil, India. It's all good and well some 200 million people have a PC in China, if they don't buy their games, it doesn't expand the market. The PC market is not the biggest market, not in a long shot, just look at the worldwide game sales.

  • ebony69 #36 2 years ago

    @blue - I dont think it will be funny enough to make me laugh. Perhaps a little titter but nothing more.

  • Dejinator #37 2 years ago

    I say...bloody hell!

  • skillian #38 2 years ago

    The PC market is not the biggest market, not in a long shot, just look at the worldwide game sales.

    [link url=http://kotaku.com/5038833/pc-gaming-a-107-billion-indu stry
    ]http://ko taku.com/5038833/pc-gaming-a-10...[/link]

    $10.7 billion a year? (2007)

    “By pioneering new business models, the PC has quietly remained the single leading platform for games, not only in terms of consumer usage, but revenue generation,” said David Cole, an analyst with DFC Intelligence.

  • BOFH_UK #39 2 years ago

    Shame that MW2 doesn't really live up to the hype IMO. Bought it from Sainsburys on launch day, played three or four hours on Saturday, traded on Sunday. Just not a fun game for me, story was terrible and made no sense at all - SPOILERS - (why exactly does Russia chuck a load of troops at the US by air and then drop this limited and valuable resource in suburbia to assault a resturaunt?), combat was impressive and chaotic but somehow wasn't FUN! Sure a lot of people will get a lot of enjoyment out of it but it just didn't do anything for me. Traded it for Brutal Legend and a couple of blu-rays so I'm up on the deal.

  • butler` #40 2 years ago

    Wake up out of your Angloamerican-centric console bullshit guyz.

  • stevetuck #41 2 years ago

    So whens the next big game coming out?

  • superted1974 #42 2 years ago

    @ BOFH

    First comment I have read on the plot and I agree entirely.

    I am enjoying the game but agree the story is just pants. They should have taken a leaf out of Tom Clancey's book - they all seem to have a plot that leads to the brink of WW3 and although far fetched they at least make sense!

  • spekkeh #43 2 years ago

    The story of the game is indeed abysmal, that airport scene served no purpose other than to shock and sell units, and by the end of the game I had no clue as to what the main villain had actually done wrong. Explaining the narrative while you're kneedeep in a firefight is just bollocks.

    However, I still enjoyed the singe player campaign immensely, I think it was an awesomely crafted rollercoaster ride.

  • Lunatic4ever #44 2 years ago

    maybe that is why this stupid activision dude said "there is a demand to pay"

    worst shit ive ever heard. im starting to hate activision ever since they started to treat us like shit.
    once they really come up with a payment-system for dlc...WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM FALL HARD ON THEIR FACE...
    real hard...

  • Sunyavadin #45 2 years ago

    Since Sainsbury's are selling it for £26, which we assume is below cost price, does this really count?

    I've yet to see ANYWHERE selling it at a profit if the wholesale price for distributors is anything above £30
    All the supermarkets are doing it for £25, Gamestation are still doing the trade-in worth £25 (Or less if you pick the games up at some of the prices you can get for them), and even all the local retailers are doing no more than £30...

    The question remains WHY????

    I can understand supermarkets, it's a drop in the bucket to them. Games are what? 0.00001% of their total turnover? But even local small retailers doing this mkes me wonder what Activision really are charging and what the difference between that and RRP actually is.

    Anyone who handles the stock for any small retailer want to clue us in?

  • Sunyavadin #46 2 years ago

    $10.7 billion a year? (2007)

    Isn't that just WoW's yearly profits?

  • tobsen #47 2 years ago

    They might have broken initial sales records, but I am sure that the retail sales will taper off rather quickly... as soon as underwhelmed gamers flood Ebay and other second-hand channels with thousands of copies of this game, as it will inevitably happen.

  • GamerG #48 2 years ago

    COD4 has only just left the chart, what makes people think this wont be any different in terms of legs?

    The COD online community will be massive and i'm sure will top the Xbox Live charts for the next 2 years people wont be trading it in anymore than any other COD game.

  • Sunyavadin #49 2 years ago

    COD4 has only just left the chart, what makes people think this wont be any different in terms of legs?

    Possibly because, from what most long term CoD players I know tell me, it's got nothing on CoD4.

  • GamerG #50 2 years ago

    As far as I am concerened and everyone I have spoken too MW2 blows COD4 out of the water online which became a simply became a boring grenade fest

  • jambo74 #51 2 years ago

    No Operation Flashpoint DR in the top 40. Good. Codemasters getting what they deserve with that one!

  • KDR_11k #52 2 years ago

    So this is how gaming dies, with raptourious applause.

    Damn you Acti(rapingcunt)vision. Your time of failure will come, like EA before you.

    Don't worry, they're working on their doom. They're overexploiting their property, destroying its appeal. Their share value actually went DOWN on the MW2 release!

  • makeamazing #53 2 years ago

    I can only assume that you are referring to PC or PS3 CoD4 players because everyone I know who has played both on the 360 has said that MW2 is better.

    Nope its called bad level design... the SP is truely poor, and this is the same on all versions :). MW1 was alot better designed.

  • Obit #54 2 years ago

    Got the game for €30. The wonders of online key stores :)
    Edited by 1 at 16/11/09 @ 17:37

  • solidSnake04 #55 2 years ago

    "this is one for the history books...the world's first HALO jump"
    anyone remember that?

  • lockload #56 2 years ago

    Picked up the xbox 360 Elite with forza3 and MW2 for £199 loving it !

  • icematt12 #57 2 years ago

    Well, it's likely that most of the sales for MW2 was on 360. Seems to be Activision's console of choice, and I wouldn't be surprised if a demo appeared on XBLA and maybe PC before christmas.

  • Law07 #58 2 years ago

    STYLE BOUTIQUE AT 40th!? WHAT IS THIS

  • rotmm #59 2 years ago

    @bluem4gic, "My friend works in the czech republic, PC gaming is huge out there. Why because console games are way too expensive"

    Indeed. And, in the Czech Republic, PC gaming is also too expensive, which is why the vast (VAST) majority of Czech gamers only play pirated games.

    So how exactly is that helping the games industry, and the PC games industry specifically?

    Think about that one and get back to me.

  • EmiliasHorse #60 2 years ago

    Picked up a copy for £26 from Sainsbury's played the first hour or so then returned to the utterly brilliant Dragon Age.

  • Quixz #61 2 years ago

    Got myself the Elite bundle with MW2 and Forza and then got another copy of MW2 for my little brother.

    The only games that make money on PC are MMOs everyone knows that..
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/09 @ 00:11

  • Emmit_Assassin #62 2 years ago

    I disagree that MW2 is not a patch on MW1. They've extended and added to everything. The most gripes I'm hearing are about the maps, and I thinks that's only because no one is used to them yet. Give it a few weeks and things will change.

    And if everyone is so underwhelmed by MW2, how come there were a million concurrent players online the other day?

    Don't get me wrong, the game is flawed. But not that bad.

  • DB2k #63 2 years ago

    i bet the studio that make the "other" COD games is thinking "hmm.. we're shit aren't we..."