Given the groundswell of support preceding it, it’s not too surprising that Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs took this week’s number one in the UK Charts. In fact, the studio’s open-world crime opus also staked a claim for the highest-selling new IP ever in the UK, edging out Rockstar’s L.A. Noire by more than 50 percent.
Here’s this week’s top ten in full, courtesy of GfK:
1) Watch Dogs
2) Mario Kart 8
3) Wolfenstein: The New Order
4) FIFA 14
5) Minecraft PS3 Edition
6) 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil
7) Titanfall
8) Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition
9) Call of Duty: Ghosts
10) The Lego Movie Videogame
Undoubtedly, this success will surely grant Ubisoft Montreal the opportunity to expand Watch Dogs’ universe through sequels and various spin-offs. In hindsight, delaying the game from its initial November release could well have protected its franchise potential, thereby saving the bold new IP from being a technocratic flash in the pan.
Elsewhere in the charts, though, Nintendo’s critically-adorned Mario Kart 8 took home the silver trophy for second place. And while the eighth numerical entry failed to eclipse Watch Dogs in terms of sales, Mario Kart 8 was responsible for a significant spike in weekly Wii U purchases. According to chart-track, the game caused hardware sales to soar by 666%; no thanks to the Wii U bundle, of course, which accounted for 82 percent of the racer’s show-stopping sales.
Rounding off the rest of this week’s top five, Wolfenstein: The New Order managed to maintain its strong first week sales by remaining third, while chart regulars FIFA 14 and Minecraft PS3 edition took fourth and fifth, respectively. 2K’s Borderlands 2 reentered the top 20 this week thanks to the recently launched Vita version, which entered the standings at 18th.
Looking ahead to next week, however, it seems as though Aiden Pearce will have to contend with the supernatural in the form of Square Enix’s Murdered Soul Suspect. Nevertheless, if Watch Dogs is to remain at the summit next week, it may have to deal with competition (and a few blue shells) a little closer to home.