Over 1m boxed games sold in the UK in three weeks

The number of physical video games sold in the UK has increased, despite a nationwide lockdown that has seen most High Street games retailers closed.

Over 350,000 games were sold last week, a rise of 3% week-on-week. That means more than one million physical games have been sold in the UK over the last three weeks. Prior to any lockdown or social distancing measures, game sales were tracking at around 150,000 units a week.

Despite the result, the big new release of the week did underperform compared to its predecessor. Resident Evil 3 sold fewer than half the number of units of last year's Resident Evil 2. Of course, with so many stores closed and people told to stay at home, it's entirely possible that the game performed much better as a download. Digital download data is not available.

The other new release of the week was the PlayStation 4 exclusive Persona 4 Royal, which makes No.5.

Games bundled with PS4 and Xbox One hardware continues to perform well, due to another strong week of sales of games consoles over the past week. Titles such Uncharted 4, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Forza Horizon 4, Sea of Thieves and The Last of Us Remastered continue to have a presence in the Top 20.

The same cannot be said for Nintendo Switch games. With standard Switch hardware almost entirely sold out, games such as Mario Kart 8: Deluxe have fallen sharply down the charts. Mario Kart 8 is currently down at No.25, the first time it has fallen out of the Top 20 in over three years.

Meanwhile, the big new Switch game, Animal Crossing: New Horizon, falls to No.4 with a 35% drop in sales week-on-week.

Here is the GfK Top Ten for the week ending April 4th