Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has ended the year on top of the UK physical retail charts for a third straight week, but 2019 as a whole saw a 20% year-on-year drop in physical copies. The news comes by way of a Ukie’s weekly chart tracking, with additional commentary provided by Gamesindustry.biz.
Last week’s top five actually remains unchanged from the previous, with FIFA 20 holding onto second place and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order at third, followed by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe and Luigi’s Mansion 3.
One of the last week’s big risers up the charts was Grand Theft Auto V, the performance of which is simultaneously surprising and also no unexpected: GTAV continues to steamroll regional charts across the world and has done for years, but the fact that it’s doing so seven years after launch still beggars belief.
As noted by Gamesindustry.biz, this week marks the end of an era for UK chart tracking as the new year brings a change in how game sales are tracked for the region. Where previously the UK’s trade body used GfK’s chart tracking of just physical retail copies sold, it’ll change to the European trade body ISFE called GSD, which includes digital as well.
Moving forward, then, you can expect to hear about both digital and physical copies sold in the UK each week, though they’ll come as two separate reports.
Here is the final Ukie (GfK) chart of 2019:
To compare this week’s UK physical sales to last week it’s here.
