Far Cry 5 managed to take the top spot in the UK monthly charts for March, after spending only five days on shelves by the time GfK closed the charts on March 31st.
Sales for the new entry in Ubisoft’s franchise are on a par with Far Cry 4’s Month One sales back in 2014. Far Cry 5 even did slightly better, with a 0.53 per cent growth compared to the 2014 title. Far Cry 5 also performed better than 2016’s Far Cry Primal, with Month One sales up 99 per cent compared to the spin-off.
As a result of this good performance, Ubisoft is back at the top of the publishers’ charts both in value and units, taking over EA. Far Cry 5 had an impressive opening week, becoming the biggest launch in the franchise’s history.
Meanwhile, FIFA 18 and GTA V landed comfortably at No.2 and No.3 respectively, with Sea of Thieves having to settle for No.4 for its debut in the monthly charts. However, with the title available for free at launch on Xbox Game Pass, boxed sales are not necessarily a good indicator of the title’s success. Microsoft announced that the title clocked up over a million players on launch day, with this figure growing to more than 2m players as of March 29th.
There was another new entry in March’s Top Ten, with EA’s Burnout Paradise Remastered charting at No.8.
Further down the charts, Bandai Namco’s Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom debuted at No.15. Sales were down 40 per cent compared to Month One sales for 2013’s Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
Other new entries in the charts in March included Nintendo’s Kirby Star Allies at No.19, Big Ben’s TT Isle of Man: Ride on the Edge at No.22, Sony’s PSVR title Bravo Team at No.25 and 3DS exclusive Detective Pikachu at No.48.
Here’s the Top Ten for the period between February 25th and March 31st (data courtesy of GfK/Ukie):