Dead Island 2 Dominates UK Boxed Charts with Impressive Debut

The UK boxed video game market experienced a 6% decline in sales week-over-week, despite the introduction of three new titles. Dead Island 2, developed by Deep Silver, emerged as the top-selling new release, claiming the number one spot in the UK boxed charts. It is the third largest game launch of the year, trailing behind Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 4. Although it sold roughly half of what Resident Evil 4 achieved, it performed significantly better than Dead Space. A comparison to the original game will be possible once digital data is released later in the week. Minecraft Legends secured the second position, with the majority of its physical sales coming from the Nintendo Switch, accounting for 76% of its total sales. It's worth noting that digital data is not included in these figures, and Minecraft Legends is also part of Xbox Game Pass. The PlayStation versions accounted for 19% of boxed sales, while the remaining 5% came from Xbox. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Nintendo Switch narrowly missed second place, although it ranked second in the Single Format Charts. The game faced a challenging market, being the first installment in the series in 15 years, and its launch was postponed due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, it has found an audience following positive reviews last week. Elsewhere, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe dropped to fourth place with a 13% decline in sales, while FIFA 23 fell four places to fifth after a 25% drop. Only two games in the top 40, Red Dead Redemption 2 at number 38 and Kirby and the Forgotten Land at number 31, saw an increase in sales week-over-week, partly due to the end of the Easter sales period. The sales boost from the recent Mario movie is starting to fade, with Super Mario Odyssey dropping to sixth place after a 25% decline, and New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe falling to eleventh place with a similar sales drop. The GfK UK Boxed Top Ten for the week ending April 22, 2023, is as follows: