UK charts: Slow start for Tomb Raider as Spider-Man reigns supreme

The finale in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy arrived this week to an underwhelming reception in the UK.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider's Week One sales are 25% higher than its predecessor's, 2015's Rise of the Tomb Raider. However, Rise was an exclusive to Xbox platforms (at the time), whereas Shadow is a full multi-platform release.

Compared to the first Tomb Raider reboot in 2013, first weeks sales are more than 70% down. Of course, these charts don't factor in digital sales, and digital is understood to be taking a larger percentage of the boxed market compared with five years ago. Nevertheless, it's not a huge week one for Lara Croft. 63% of launch sales came on PS4, whereas Xbox One accounted for the remaining 37%.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider debuts at No.2, which means Spider-Man retains its No.1 spot for a second week. Impressively, the Sony game's week two sales are down just 42% compared to its launch week, and it's already on the brink of eclipsing the sales of the last big PS4 exclusive: God of War (boxed sales only).

There's also a new game at No.3 in the form of NBA 2K19. The 2K title charts a place lower than last year's entry, although sales are pretty much identical. 65% of sales of NBA were on PS4, 33% on Xbox One and 2% on Nintendo Switch.

The big riser this week was The Elder Scrolls Online, which breaks into the Top Ten after a significant price cut.

Last week's big new releases drop further down the charts. Sales of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age fell 86% week-on-week and the game drops to no.29, whereas Destiny 2 Forsaken sales fell 68% and the game now sits at No.26.

There is one other new release in the charts, NHL19, which comes in at No.28.

Here is the UKIE/GFK top ten for the week ending September 17th, 2018: