UK Charts 18/04/20 – Game sales almost halved, as Final Fantasy VII drops from the top spot

Physical game sales dropped by 43% week-on-week, but it was still a good week for game sales in the UK. I mean, FIFA 20 retook the top spot, which is objectively the most boring possible game to top the charts, but sales were still significantly higher than they were before the coronavirus lockdown, and that’s without any new game releases.

So sales slipped from 350,000 in the week ending 11th April to 200,000 in the week ending 18th April, and a big part of this will have largely been down to a whopping 87% drop for Final Fantasy VII Remake. However, Animal Crossing and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe also had drops of 42% and 62% respectively – this can be attributed to console stock shortages. Even chart topping FIFA 20 had a 25% drop in sales.

One of the bright spots was Ring Fit Adventure coming back into stock briefly on Game, Amazon and ShopTo, resulting in a 12% week-on-week jump before all the copies disappeared, showing the appetite for this game and the Nintendo Switch in general.

Oh, also Cooking Mama: Cookstar managed to sneak into 35th place from outside the top 40, where it was last week.

Here’s the top 35:

Source: GFK via Gamespress, Games Industry