Physical Sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Surpass Vanguard by Over 40% in the UK

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has experienced a significantly stronger first week at retail compared to its predecessor, Call of Duty: Vanguard, with a 42% increase in physical sales. This also represents a near 9% rise over Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War from 2020. However, when compared to the 2019 release of Modern Warfare, sales are down by 61%, a decline that may be attributed to the growing dominance of digital downloads, with digital sales data to be released later. The breakdown of physical sales shows 53% on PS5, 29% on Xbox, and 18% on PS4, although it's worth noting that Xbox tends to have a stronger digital market share. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is now the third-largest physical release of the year, following FIFA 22 and Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The arrival of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has ended FIFA 23's four-week reign at the top, pushing it to second place, with FIFA 23 still trending slightly ahead of its predecessor in terms of physical sales. Bayonetta 3, new to the charts at number three, has seen a 4% increase in its opening week sales compared to the Switch port of Bayonetta 2 in 2018. This comes at a time when Switch game sales in the UK are showing signs of slowing, with a 9% decrease in overall Switch physical software sales year-to-date. Other notable movements include Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope dropping 52% in sales and falling to seventh place, while Gotham Knights saw a 73% decline, dropping from second to fifth. Persona 5 Royal also experienced a significant drop, falling from sixth to fifteenth after a 61% slip in sales. New releases such as Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, and Resident Evil: Village Gold Edition have entered the charts at eighteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-fourth, respectively. Finally, Horizon: Forbidden West has bounced back into the top five, boosted by its inclusion in PS5 hardware bundles.