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With Black Friday madness upon retailers last week, Battlefield V’s launch almost went unnoticed and EA’s FPS had to settle for No.4 for its first week in the charts. Sales for this new entry were down 63.4 per cent compared to Week One sales for 2016’s Battlefield 1. It should be noted that Battlefield 1 launched in October, not November, which means the title didn’t have to compete with Black Friday’s heavily discounted games. But even taking this into account, as well as EA doubling down on digital, sales for Battlefield V are quite underwhelming.
It’s these heavily discounted games, which benefited from bundles in most cases, that are the real winners of the charts this week. FIFA 19 was propelled back at No.1 with a 177 per cent boost in sales week-on-week and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 also gained five spots to No.2, with sales going up an impressive 360 per cent. Red Dead Redemption 2 also benefited from Black Friday, to a lesser extent: it lost one spot to No.3 despite a 36 per cent increase in sales as it was bundled with PS4.
Forza Horizon 4 also had a great week, with sales rising 535 per cent week-on-week and charting at No.5, while Spider-Man saw the biggest increase of the week: a whopping 634 per cent rise. Sony’s hit gained seven spots and re-entered the Top Ten at No.6.
Meanwhile, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which debuted at No.1 the previous week, fell to No.9 with sales decreasing 62 per cent week-on-week, and Pokémon: Let’s Go Pikachu did quite well for its second week in the charts, with sales only decreasing 43 per cent. Let’s Go Eevee saw a 55 per cent decrease week-on-week.
Debuting in the charts this week were Focus’ Farming Simulator 19, which entered the listings at No.16, and Maximum Games’ Bendy and the Ink Machine, which landed at No.30.
Black Friday boosted almost every title in the Top 40, though the market is slightly down compared to last year’s Black Friday period: sales were down 7.4 per cent year-on-year in units and 3.5 per cent in value.
Here’s the Top Ten for the week ending November 24th 2018 (data courtesy of GfK/Ukie):
