UK Chart: The Last of Us, Animal Crossing Revitalise Games Retail

It's amazing what happens when you actually release games during the Summer period. Shock horror - people might go out and buy games! Sony and Nintendo have learned that valuable fact this week, as The Last of Us and Animal Crossing: New Leaf not only take the top two spots on the UK Chart, but also smash a bunch of records doing so.

First, The Last of Us. It stormed to the top of the GfK Chart-Track UKIE UK Top 10 (Turbo Hyper Fighting Edition), and in doing so became the third best-selling game of the year (behind Tomb Raider and BioShock Infinite). It reportedly grossed more this weekend than blockbuster film Man of Steel did, and it's the biggest UK launch of a new IP since L.A. Noire in 2011.

As for Animal Crossing: New Leaf... the 3DS cartoon life sim debuted at #2 in the chart, but doubled as the console's biggest UK launch since Mario Kart 7. It trebled as the UK's biggest ever non-Mario launch on the 3DS.

The two titles helped drive a surge in the video games retail market for the week, and account for half of the boxed game sales of the past seven days, according to MCV. So - release games in Summer, hype them up effectively, and you have yourselves a solid chance at reviving the market for the sunny drought period. Also, no competition to fight against either, leaving the entire market to yourself. What a novel idea!


Here's the Top 10:

{NE} - 01 - The Last of Us - Sony
{NE} - 02 - Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Nintendo
{01} - 03 - GRID 2 - Codemasters
{07} - 04 - Tomb Raider - Square Enix
{02} - 05 - FIFA 13 - EA Sports
{RE} - 06 - Injustice: Gods Among Us - Warner Bros
{05} - 07 - Far Cry 3 - Ubisoft
{04} - 08 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition - Bethesda
{08} - 09 - Luigi's Mansion 2 - Nintendo
{10} - 10 - Assassin’s Creed III - Ubisoft