Anthem tops the UK sales chart

BioWare and EA’s new loot shooter, Anthem, has topped the UK sales chart this week following the games official launch last Friday, but it’s not all good news for the game.

Despite sitting in first place, Anthem only actually managed to pick up half of the number of sales as 2017’s Mass Effect Andromeda, which itself only managed half of the sales of 2012’s Mass Effect 3, which means that Anthem only managed a quarter of the number of sales of Mass Effect 3. We have to be fair here and note that this is only counting physical copies, which is an important thing to remember as the number of people that now opt to purchase their games digitally has undoubtedly increased in recent years. Having released back in 2012, Mass Effect 3’s sales will have been mostly physical copies so it’s probably unfair to compare Anthem to it, but at less than two years old Mass Effect Andromeda definitely represents a fair comparison to draw conclusions from.

This news will definitely be a disappointment for both BioWare and EA but I can’t say that I’m surprised. Anthem had a very convoluted launch and suffered from a beta that was riddled with technical issues that likely put a few players off. Not only that, but the game has been receiving a very mixed reaction since launch, so players that held off pre-ordering the game will likely have decided against buying Anthem in favour of waiting for another upcoming loot shooter, The Division 2, which launches in a few weeks. Ricky is currently hammering through Anthem, so keep an eye out for his review of the game soon.

Elsewhere in the charts, Far Cry: New Dawn drops from top spot into second, and FIFA 19 has jumped two places up to third. Red Dead Redemption 2 has lost a place as it drops to fourth, while Metro: Exodus suffers a relatively big drop, plummeting from second to fifth. Forza Horizon 4 reappears in the top 10 by occupying sixth place, and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe holds position in seventh. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 both climb a place, sitting in eight and ninth respectively, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate claims the final spot in the top 10. Jump Force, Resident Evil 2 Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3 drop out of the top 10 altogether, having held fourth, sixth, and eighth in last weeks charts.

As always, you can check out the top 10 below, or you can see the full top 40 here. Incidentally, Crackdown 3, which was notably absent from the top 10 last week having been a brand new release, is currently sitting in 26th place in the charts. Absolute disaster.