God of War Ragnarok recorded the UK's second-biggest game launch of the year for physical copies last week, topped only by FIFA 23. Beating out competition from Elden Ring and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, we already knew the sequel had sold more units during its first day of availability than any other entry in the series managed in its first week.
Already the third-best-selling God of War game of all time in the UK, sales were up by 51 per cent compared to God of War (2018). The game's launch also drove PS5 console purchases up, to the point where last week was the biggest seven-day stretch of system sales for 2022. 12 per cent of all God of War Ragnarok sales in the region came from the official PS5 bundle, while the bundle itself represented 60 per cent of console purchases.
Of course, with much of the industry focused on digital sales nowadays, the story might be different if they were taken into account in GfK's sales data. Modern Warfare 2 will have skewed heavily towards digital, especially since you could play the campaign one week early with a PS Store pre-order. As such, God of War Ragnarok may not take second place in the UK once every purchase is counted.
Elsewhere in the top 10, Sonic Frontiers debuts in fourth place, with the game selling best on PS5 (40 per cent of all purchases). It sold five per cent more copies than 2017 title Sonic Forces. Horizon Forbidden West experiences a 141 per cent sales increase to land in seventh, while Tactics Ogre: Reborn begins life in 24th.
Here's the latest top 10 in full.
UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 12th November 2022
- God of War Ragnarok
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- FIFA 23
- Sonic Frontiers
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
- Nintendo Switch Sports
- Horizon Forbidden West
- Splatoon 3
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Minecraft (Switch)
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 43
That reminds me I need to play more God of War today, I've been playing Sonic Frontiers and that Atari collection the last few days and from what I've played of God of War so far this is thoroughly deserved
It seems like Sony and Nintendo are the last 2 companies that still care about physical copies.
Im maybe 20 hours in and it’s more than worthy of every sale and accolade. Phenomenal!
Good for both God of War and Sonic! Let this be a lesson though to the folks that said God of War would destroy Sonics sales potential. Never doubt the loyalty of the Sonic fanbase. It also helps that the game is really fun!
I’m only 3 hours in, but it’s already my game of the year. Utterly absorbing, gorgeous and ridiculously fun!
"Horizon Forbidden West experiences a 141 per cent sales increase to land in seventh"
Wait a sec. Is there a Horizon bundle? If not then why would the so called "flop" be selling so well when no one wants it and people are only forced to get it with the ps5?
Glad GOWR has seized No. 1. That list always reminds me how much Nintendo still "owns" physical sales.
Sonic game will just have to wait for me, I plan to turn every stone and open every chest in GOWR
@naruball HFW is in a lot of people 3-5 best games of the year. That is hardly a flop or disappointing outcome, and there are worse things to be forced into getting as consumer (cough cough, Destruction All Stars).
@Cikajovazmaj I couldn't agree more. Hopefully, this will help open some people's eyes. Or, you know, it won't, because nothing will.
More than Elden Ring and, most impressively COD! Wow. Way to go SMS. Wonderful game so far, about 15 hours in and constantly blown away by the quality in just about every single area.
It is an outstanding title, no other words. I ignored the 2018 release, then played it free on PS5 collection, platinumed, loved it and Ragnarok blows 2018 out of the water! That freebie meant I pre-ordered Ragnarok, smart move Sony.
Looking forward to playing it next year. We'll done to everyone involved
Love to see it. I'm 25 hours in and it's without a doubt my GotY and might beat my favorite game of all time God of War 2018 and becoming my new favorite video game of all time. Everything about this game is what I love about video games.
"What is an olive?"
@naruball some people use their opinions to mask their inability to think without bias and to think somewhat objectively.
People saying HFW is a flop because they didn't like it but fail to acknowledge that it is industry leading in so many metrics. When Playtesting for EA, they repeatedly described it as the pinnacle of an Action Adventure game.
@TrickyDicky99 what an absolute nonsense narrative. The game was about 50% ahead of GoW(2018) which sold 3.1M in its opening week worldwide.
The PS5 sells roughly about 300k a week worldwide, in a big week with lots of hardware shipped it might be around 500k, which would comfortably be the biggest week of the year so far.
Even if every single person of that 500k was “forced” to buy GoW:Ragnarok that still leaves a likely 3-4M sales on the table.
@The_Pixel_King high praise for Sonic indeed!!
N.i.c.e.Thats impressive.god of war ragnarok is amazing.kratos the g.o.a.t. 🐐 👑.word up son
GOW Ragnarok is my game of the year! About 20 hours in and loving every minute of it.
I'll probably play Sonic Frontiers after I'm done with Ragnarok. I hear it's good and I haven't played a decent 3d Sonic game in a while.
@TrickyDicky99 you really need a new narrative. The game is a massive success story despite it being a cross gen title, you must be so disappointed.
@TrickyDicky99 nice to see that facts still don't matter to you. And why should they?
Opinions > facts
@theMEGAniggle And they laughably compare it to AC when HFW's graphics is miles ahead no contest. How do you achieve that kind of graphics in an open world...the AI of those robots not seen in any other game is leagues ahead they give Kojima's Metal Gears a run for their money. I mean Kojima himself was so impressed he had to go get that Guerrilla engine. People can't be serious.
@theMEGAniggle Well said. The only valid point they raise is that Forbidden West did disappear from the top 20 for a few weeks (months?) before the bundle. So, I think the bundles helped, but it's not like everyone who got the bundle didn't want it (or that every single person wanted it).
@TheArt that comparison is ridiculous. There is no part of the visuals, performance, world, fidelity, AI or performance capture that can be matched in any other open world game. None. Then the fact you can fly through the world. Decima Engine is just <chef's kiss>
I understand criticism but yeah to outright shift goalposts and lie about the game and call it bad, or a flop is crazy.
@naruball I have been so critical of HZD but the franchise is undoubtably a crazy success. I think it was inevitable that it would perform awkwardly near release and a little after due to the hype from the other games that released near its launch.
Didn't get in before tricky dicky started yelling about console bundles being the reason , because no one would want to buy a masterpiece of a game if it's also on PS4 would they
@naruball tricky dicky will tell you Jim Ryan's putting a gun to people's heads & forcing them to buy it 😂
@Would_you_kindly at this point, it wouldn't surprise me if he went that far, haha.
@theMEGAniggle
Horzion is not the pinnacle of anything besides to people who value graphics above all. It has some of the most boring characters I’ve ever played in a game and the gameplay is really not that special at all.
40 hours in already and must say it's quite a good game.
Love the game but its got a game breaking bug, anyone found a way round? My autosaves don't go back far enough to start level again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5ljYWOM3LM
Pretty surprised also happy that Sonic is 4th!!
@Shad361 I listed all the things that devs said to me HFW was industry leading in. If you disagree because you thought the story and characters were boring, that's not really affected by the visuals, performance, world, fidelity, sound design, AI or performance capture.
I mentioned nothing about the gameplay and story. Story could use some work and I've complained time and time again about the gameplay of Horizon. IT'S STILL A GREAT GAME.
@TrickyDicky99 next time read the article hater
@naruball what’s even better is that’s just uk in the US where bundles aren’t counted it’s in the top ten best selling games of the year and still charts decently every month of npd.
@Shad361 thats your opinion about characters even though that’s a massive disagree from me but please go ahead and name other OPEN WORLD games with better combat this gen I’ll wait.
@TrickyDicky99 so your comment was even more pointless got it.
What cost of living crisis?
@greatauk - a lot of people out there freezing their ballacks off in favour of playing GOW I guess
@TrickyDicky99 you’re full of crap unless you can provide some statistics
@TrickyDicky99 How do you explain that the number of copies of Ragnarok sold is likely around 10 times the number of PS5s sold? Maybe retailers were making bundles with a PS5 and 10 copies of Ragnarok?
Well deserved! I'm only a few hours in but have been enjoying my time with the game.
@TrickyDicky99 comedy gold right here.
@TrickyDicky99 you’re actually wrong about the digital code and these being physical sales only.
They’re retail tracked sales, which is normally 100% physical but digital pack-ins are included here because they’re sold at retail and can be tracked. UK games charts always includes physical pack-in codes.
12% of all ps5 retail tracked sales were the GoW bundle with the digital code. Note not 12% of all retail copies of GoW as the article erroneously states, but only 12% of PS5 sales, does not include ps4 sales and when you add in Digital sales that are probably about 50-60% of the overall sales then the digital code is about 5% of sales.
This game was a Mega Hit.
@TrickyDicky99 well let’s extrapolate the data a little bit to see if your claim has any merit.
12% of ps5 retail sales were the official bundle, and 60% of all PS5s sold in the week were the official bundle. So if every additional ps5 sold in the week was a forced bundle with one copy of Ragnarok then that would turn the 12% into 20%.
So we have:
20% of PS5 retail sales were a bundle
0% of PS4 tretail sales were a bundle
0% of PS5 Digital Sales were a bundle
0% of PS4 Digital sales were a bundle
This is the absolute most extreme scenario in which every single PS5 sold in the entire world included a copy of Ragnarok.
At the end of the day the number of consoles sold in one week is tiny compared to the kind of numbers there massive games do on week 1.
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