FIFA 23 is the UK's boxed chart Christmas number one
Whistle stop.
This year's UK Christmas boxed games chart is in and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's FIFA at number one.
EA's mega-successful football series is a frequent winner of the Christmas number one crown, and last week likely saw a further boost in sales due to the attention surrounding the controversial World Cup in Qatar.
FIFA games have now taken the Christmas top spot 10 times since sales records began back in 1984, making it the most popular Christmas number one franchise (versus Call of Duty's nine Christmas chart toppers).
Since 2006, only three games outside of the FIFA and Call of Duty franchises have managed to snag Christmas number one: Skyrim (2011), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020).
Other entries in this year's Christmas top 10 also come from familiar franchises - and all in all, the rundown looks very similar to last year - when FIFA was also at number one. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is once again in the top 10, just as it was last year. And Nintendo also has two Pokémon games in the rundown, just as it did last year too.
This year's Christmas UK boxed game chart top 10 lies below in full, courtesy of numbers company GfK:
- FIFA 23
- COD: Modern Warfare 2
- God of War Ragnarok
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Pokémon Violet
- Nintendo Switch Sports
- Pokémon Scarlet
- Crisis Core: FF7 Reunion
- Minecraft: Switch Edition
- Just Dance 2023