Destiny 2 is the Biggest Launch This Year in the UK, But Falls Considerably Short of the First Game

Surprise, surprise, the 36th week of the UK sales chart has been topped by the newly-released, Destiny 2, which is arguably the year’s “biggest” release yet.

Thus it is no surprise that Bungie and Activision’s Destiny 2 is the biggest launch so far this year in the UK, a title previously held by PS4 exclusive Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. 

What is a bit of a surprise though is that its first week sales are nearly 58% down compared with the original, a considerable decline, and a continuing of the recent trend of sequels not selling as well as their predecessors early-on.

However, it is important to note that the digital market is much bigger in 2017 than in 2014, and thus takes away a bigger slice of physical sales (this data doesn’t include digital sales, as always). Further, the OG Destiny also released on last generational consoles PS3 and Xbox 360, meaning it had more people in a position to pick it up. People might also be waiting for the PC version, a platform that was not offered the first time around.

Notably, 58% of the game’s sales were on PS4, which is an increase for Sony who across PS3 and PS4 only saw 51% of the sales in the opening week of the orignal Destiny.

But that is enough of Destiny 2, lets talk about the rest of the chart. Last week’s No.1, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, slipped to No.2, meanwhile the rest of the top five is made up of a slew of older games that consist of Forza Horizon 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and Fallout 4, in that order.

Last week’s No.3, F1 2017  fell to No.7, while Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, which dominated the charts for so long, slipped one spot week-on-week to No.6, and Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle rounded out the top 10 after placing No.2 last week. It’s also worth pointing out that much of the older games in the top ten were included in a variety of sale promotions.

As for new entries to this week’s chart, Sony’s PS4 exclusive Knack II debuted at No.12, Capcom’s Monster Hunter Stories landed at No.21, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ for Nintendo Switch came in at at No.36, and LEGO Worlds jumped two places week-on-week thanks to the release of a Switch version.

Below, you can check out the full Top 40 for Week 36 2017 (the week ended on September 9th). As always, it’s important to remember that the following chart is specific to retail sales in the UK, and thus does not feature digital sales of any kind.

For reference: here is last week’s chart.