Skyrim Dethrones EA/Activision's Streak Atop UK Christmas Chart

[Shamus Young]

Skyrim Dethrones EA/Activision's Streak Atop UK Christmas Chart

The last time a game published by a company other than EA or Activision led the UK charts in December was in 2002.

GFK's Chart-Track [http://www.chart-track.co.uk/] annually releases its list of best-selling games in the United Kingdom the week before December 25th and dubs it the Christmas Chart. In 2003, Electronic Arts' Medal of Honor: Rising Sun took over the honor from 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (TakeTwo/Rockstar). Since then, every Christmas Chart topper in the UK was published by the two largest videogame companies including Modern Warfare: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 and FIFA '09. That is, until Bethesda took the crown this year, with Skyrim maintaining its number 1 position ahead of Just Dance 3 and Modern Warfare 3.

The open-world epic RPG from Bethesda sold 15,000 more units than Just Dance 3, more people play dancing videogames [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114799-Modern-Warfare-3-Tops-Redbox-Most-Rented-List] than I previously thought possible. Chart-Track reports that MW3 was very close though, so at least videogames involving shooting people with guns can enjoy the third best sales in the UK during the holidays. Poor EA drops all the way to fourth place with this year's FIFA not selling as well as its predecessors.

Here are the 10 best-selling games for the week ending on December 17th in the UK across all platforms (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii):

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
Just Dance 3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
FIFA 12
Saints Row: The Third
Battlefield 3
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games
Need for Speed: The Run
Professor Layton and the Spectre's Call

Source: Chart=Track [http://www.chart-track.co.uk/?i=1237&s=1111]

Permalink

 

[FateOrFatality]

proving yet again that more people play dancing videogames than I previously thought possible.

This, so much. I'm pretty surprised (but happy nonetheless) that MW3 was outsold by Skyrim, let alone Just Dance 3 of all things.

Anyway, I'm always happy to see a good, quality developer (in my opinion, at least) like Bethesda win over the annoying business tactics of big name publishers like EA and Activision.

 

[Irridium]

Publishers, again, this proves there's still a market for big, open-ended, single-player only RPG's!!

Now please stop shoving multi-player into everything, and locking things away behind an online pass, please.

 

[RA92]

This is great news! Everyone! Shout with me! Rejoice for our favorite franchise!

GO JUST DANCE!

 

[Mumorpuger]

All this recent news has me really wanting to try out Just Dance 3...

It might actually be... gasp... fun! Remember fun?

To be honest though, I want to do it so I can form a valid, relevant opinion on it. Most of us just bash on casual games just because they're casual games. How dare they take sales away from my FPS, amirite guise???

As a rule, if I want to be critical about something I need to have at least tried it... Which is the unfortunate reason I read the first Twilight book.

I read Twain afterwards, as penance, for those curious.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I'm more suprised that Rising Sun was top in 2003! That was a pretty terrible game; half-finished, schizophrenic and way too short, compared to the masterpieces of Frontline and Allied Assault.

I suppose it was the point that COD really overtook MOH for best WW2 FPS (wow, too many 3 letter acronyms there!)

 

[FamoFunk]

Now we just have to stop the X Factor being the Christmas music #1... again.

 

[BrotherRool]

Publishers, again, this proves there's still a market for big, open-ended, single-player only RPG's!!

Now please stop shoving multi-player into everything, and locking things away behind an online pass, please.

So you want them to stop making things multiplayer and stop preventing you from playing multiplayer on used copies of said multiplayerless game at the same time?
EDIT: I removed most of my post for being overly harsh

The gist is, it'd be cool to try and be concise with your language and not latch onto group ideas and just repeat them. I nearly missed the good point of your post because you were talking about really irrelevant things.

Now the online pass part of your post I hope we both recognise as ridiculous so if we slide past that:

As far as single-player only, RPGs go, there were 10 RPGs of note this year, 7 were single player, one was Dark Souls, famed for it's awesomely unique multiplayer, and one was an MMO. The other had some online co-op. Getting past that, when online is added to a game it's normally outsourced and has very little affect on the quality of the single-player and adds something that loads of people enjoy. While it feels like there are a lot of counter-examples, the only example I can actually specifically think of, where multiplayer has been added to a game and the game has suffered is Bioshock 2, which was a mess from the start. I can provide a lot more examples going the other way.

(Incidentally most of those RPGs were really highly reviewed and it about equals the number of decent/or high profile shooters released this year although some of those RPGs were smaller and more indie)


However if we cut all that away, yes there is a market for open-world RPGs and that was a good point you made that I thought about, tried to prove wrong and realised was right. We have only two big open-world RPG franchises at the moment, compared to the 4/5 big shooter franchises (CoD, Battlefield, Medal of Honour, Halo, Gears of War) and there countless failed imitators. Saying that, there aren't many games of Assassins Creeds genre, or that many Hack 'n Slash and only one story-focussed franchise. Three big open world general franchises (Red Dead (I assume they're making sequels), GTA, Sts Row). Three or Four fighters etc and since we're talking about quite a specific brand of game (RPG and Open World) I don't think they're doing awfully.

 

[TheCakeisALie87]

I don't know when I read this sort of chart I always wonder: if these are specifically sales results...how many people are playing the games? I know XBOX live tracks that sort of thing, but I definitely see Just Dance 3 as a gift over Skyrim for the demographic that might not play it.

 

[Irridium]

That's both illogical and fairly irrelevant. The point here is that Skyrim is topping the UK christmas chart, beating a game that has a fair few imitators because publishers believe that the sales it garners means that the best strategy is to focus on games that do the same thing, which isn't entirely the case. Many of these knockoffs don't do as well as Skyrim is doing and yet it's unlikely that publishers will stop pushing for them. What Irridium is saying is that there is, in fact, a sizeable market for a type of game which is almost the antithesis of the kind of thing that a lot of publishers keep focusing on.

Whether or not a few people don't like it has shag-all to do with both Irridium's argument and the outlook of a marketing department, what matters is that a lot of people will buy and enjoy games like Skyrim, and that big-name publishers should therefore broaden the scope of the projects they agree to publish.

Im afraid that I am going to have to disagree. A single weeks sales of games which came out over a month ago is absolutely meaningless in the long run.

My point was that people who demand developers stop doing something that a very large number of people like because they personally dont are rediculous. Yes there is a market for open world rpgs but its nowhere near the same size as the fps market. Skyrim is probably the biggest title in that genre to be released in a fair while. The sales for it were nowhere near comparable to the top game in the fps genre. Plus its not like nobody is making these big open world rpgs or anything. They are coming out, in fact there is a fairly large one every single year.

I don't want them to completely stop with the multiplayer shooters. I just want them to focus on a broader range of games. The shooter market is really overcrowded, and Skyrim shows you can get massive profits by not doing what others are doing.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Now we just have to stop the X Factor being the Christmas music #1... again.

We did it with 'Killing in the name of'!
Twas a good year...
Apparently they're trying it with Nirvana this year, which is a message i approve of.

OP:
I feel proud of my fellow countrymen, this is wonderful news.
Now rest of the world, follow and copy.


Oh, and 'Just dance 3' coming second?
I laugh at all the other games for this.

Hopefully this has been a wake-up call, or at least a small push.