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The Last Guardian outsells Shadow of the Colossus but fails to reach No.1

Team Ico's third outing debuts at No.7, while Dead Rising 4 stalks in at No.4, leaving Call of Duty to reclaim the top spot

The last major new releases of 2016 are finally on shelves, each earning a Top Ten place in the UK games retail charts though perhaps not having the impact many would have hoped for.

Arguably the most anticipated release - particularly since development has taken just short of a decade - was Sony's well-received The Last Guardian, which appears at No.7.

This may seem disappointing to fans of the studio for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the game lost out to Xbox One-exclusive Dead Rising 4 for the highest debut this week. However, it's worth noting that The Last Guardian outsold both its spiritual predecessors, 2002's Ico and 2006's Shadow of the Colossus, in terms of week one sales. That the latter managed to achieve No.1 with fewer sales than The Last Guardian is perhaps a good indication of how much our industry has grown in the last ten years.

Capcom and Microsoft's Dead Rising 4 just managed to secure a Top Five position, despite the four titles above it each suffering at least a 30% drop in sales. Nonetheless, this is still two places higher than Dead Rising 3 - also exclusive to Xbox One - managed back in 2013. As always, this figures do not include digital sales, so it's not unlikely both new releases fared better than the current data suggests.

Last week's biggest debut, Final Fantasy XV, saw a significant drop in sales this week, as is commonplace for the series. However, the 75 per cent drop suffered is less than the 80 per cent drop seen by 2010's Final Fantasy XIII in its second week, and the RPG holds on to a reasonably high position at No.4.

The Top Three will be familiar reading for anyone accustomed to perusing the December retail charts in the UK, with Activision's Call of Duty battling EA's FIFA and whichever shooter the publisher has that year for the top spot. This week, Infinite Warfare reclaims No.1, despite a 30 per cent drop in sales. With just two weeks to go, this year's Call of Duty is well positioned to secure the franchise's third consecutive Christmas No.1. EA's hope to dethrone Activision is two-fold with FIFA 17 at No.2 this week, with sales down by 55%, and Battlefield 1 at No.3, down 30%.

Check out the rest of the Top Ten below.

Last Week This Week Title
3 1 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
1 2 FIFA 17
4 3 Battlefield 1
2 4 Final Fantasy XV
New Entry 5 Dead Rising 4
6 6 Watch Dogs 2
New Entry 7 The Last Guardian
9 8 Pokemon Sun
Re-Entry 9 Skyrim: Special Edition
8 10 Pokémon Moon
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James Batchelor avatar

James Batchelor

Editor-in-chief

James Batchelor is Editor-in-Chief at GamesIndustry.biz. He has been a B2B journalist since 2006, and an author since he knew what one was