Since the turn of the year, one of the main patterns that came to the fore was the way in which the UK’s all-formats charts was dominated by three core blockbusters: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, FIFA 15 and of course, Rockstar’s monumental Grand Theft Auto V. But with the industry’s production line beginning to ache into motion once more, their reign has proven to be finite, as it is Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve that has claimed the number one spot in this week’s all-formats charts.
The studio’s monstrous new IP rose to the top of the pack, where it fended of competition from fellow newcomers The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, which debuted in second and fourth place, respectively.
1) Evolve
2) The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D
3) COD: Advanced Warfare
4) Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
5) Grand Theft Auto 5
6) FIFA 15
7) Far Cry 4
8) Minecraft: Xbox Edition
9) Assassin’s Creed: Unity
10) Destiny
In terms of platforms, it’s understood that Evolve accumulated 49 per cent of sales through Xbox One — thanks in large part to its exclusive beta package on Microsoft’s console — while PlayStation 4 accounted for 48 per cent of the grand retail total. As with previous weeks, it’s worth nothing that these statistics don’t take digital sales into consideration, hence the meagre portion take up by PC.
For those other new releases, it was Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate that stormed the charts with some prestige. Buoyed by the goodwill from its native release in Japan back in September, the RPG arrived on western shores to much fanfare, and even managed to sell 95 per cent more copies that its immediate predecessor, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, in the UK.
It was largely business as usual for the rest of this week’s standings, with the likes of Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed: Unity and Destiny rounding out the top 10, while seemingly not enough people own Minecraft on Xbox platforms just yet, with the blockbuster sandbox title still holding on firmly to its place in the charts.
Stay tuned to We Got This Covered, as we’ll have our own in-depth review of Evolve for you to enjoy in the coming days.