UK Games Charts Analysis: August 20th-26th

Published August 29, 2012 | By Tom Buxton

A weekly feature examining just what the British gaming demographic are buying and why…

What with a host of new releases having hit over the course of the last fortnight or so, the British video games charts have been shifting and changing considerably. Not that anyone’s likely to complain, of course, given the slump of titles we had for the whole of July and the first two weeks of this month. So what’s changed in the past week? That’s precisely what we’re here to find out.

The big new releases of the week were Darksiders II and Transformers: Fall Of Cybertron, so you can see how they performed, as well as the other regulars, below. Here’s the list in full of the Top Ten before our analysis:

1. SLEEPING DOGS (1)
2. DARKSIDERS II (NEW)
3. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS 2 (2)
4. LONDON 2012: THE GAME (3)
5. TRANSFORMERS: FALL OF CYBERTRON (NEW)
6. LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPERHEROES (4)
7. GHOST RECON: FUTURE SOLDIER (8)
8. MARIO & SONIC AT THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES (5)
9. BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY (6)
10. LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 5-7 (10)

United Front and Square Enix will presumably both be very happy that they resurrected True Crime: Hong Kong into Sleeping Dogs given that the open-world shooter has reigned as king of the Brit charts for two consecutive weeks now. Indeed, so strongly has it performed that the debatably better Darksiders and Transformers sequels haven’t been able to topple it from the throne. It’s good to see Darksiders manage second place, though, shunting recent regulars Mario Bros 2 and London 2012 down a place each.

Travellers’ Tales LEGO franchise isn’t doing half bad this week, either- LEGO Batman 2 appears to still be riding on the wave of Dark Knight Rises success (possibly moreso than Arkham City due to it being the newer game), while the recent half-price promotion on Harry Potter Years 5-7 hasn’t harmed its own chances. No doubt the Lord Of The Rings and City adaptations set for release later this year will continue the block-buster (see what I did there?) success further in the charts as Christmastime starts to rear its head once more. Given that critics worried by the original Indiana Jones tie-in that fans would start to get LEGO fatigue, the series is really holding up well for its age!

Again, Ghost Recon has entered a half-price phase which is keeping it in a solid placement on the Top Ten, for once being the only FPS present on the list. Finally there’s Mario & Sonic appearing again with the Olympic hype at seven, a place it shouldn’t be ashamed of when it was released last Winter. It’s not exactly a surprising roster that has formed this week’s list, but to be fair it’s quite representative of how we’re getting intermittent new releases of high quality rather than the same flood we’re going to receive this Autumn.

The next big gaming release is undoubtedly Borderlands 2, out here on September 21st. Don’t expect too many changes in the rankings until then, but whatever happens we will endeavour to keep you updated nevertheless!