Astral Chain debuts at the top of the UK sales chart

Nintendo Switch exclusive Astral Chain has debuted at the top of the UK physical sales chart in a week that has seen very little separating the top four titles.

PlatinumGames earns their first ever UK number one in a hard-fought week at the top, with only 1500 boxed sales separating the top four places in the UK chart. Somewhat surprisingly, Astral Chain is way down the list on units sold when compared to previous game launches from PlatinumGames; Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and NieR:Automata have all outsold it, yet failed to capture the number one spot. What makes Astral Chain’s debut even more impressive is the fact that it’s the only game in the top 4 that’s exclusive to a single console. It adds to the collection of Switch games that have occupied the top spot this year, with Astral Chain being the sixth so far.

Narrowly beaten into second and only 1,100 sales behind Astral Chain is racing game Wreckfest. After multiple delays on console, the spiritual successor to the FlatOut series has had a successful console release, narrowly missing out on the top spot. Interactive drama survival horror game, The Dark Pictures: Man Of Medan, fell just 250 copies behind Wreckfest for a solid third, whilst Control—Remedy Entertainments first title since Quantum Break some 3 years ago—was just 300 copies behind that.

Familiar titles make top the rest of the top 10, with the ever-popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (5) and Grand Theft Auto V (9) both continuing their hot streaks. As always, you can check out this weeks top ten below, or you can see the full charts courtesy of UKIE here. As always, remember that only boxed copies of games are counted in these charts, so these positions do not represent all sales.