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Animal Crossing: New Horizons smashed sales records in the United Kingdom, and has had the most successful launch week of all Animal Crossing games in the series in the country.
GamesIndustry.biz reported on the top ten games in terms of physical sales in the week ending March 21. Animal Crossing: New Horizons slides into first place, with Doom Eternal sidling along in second place. The new social sim game toppled the record of New Leaf three and a half times over, and it’s also the fastest-selling single Switch game ever in the UK. Note the use of “single” there—Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield sold more than New Horizons, if you add both versions’ sales figures together.
It is possible that Animal Crossing: New Horizons has enjoyed even more success, given that this data only accounts for physical sales. Digital sales of New Horizons may be superabundant, due to pandemic preventative measures like self-isolation and social distancing. Though Nintendo does not publish its digital sales data, we could safely assume that the game did very well in this arena.
With regards to the top ten, physical sales are booming, with over 475,000 physical games sold over the last week—more than three times the previous week’s figures. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare hops to third place with a 282 per cent sales increase, FIFA 20 rises to fourth place with a 326 per cent increase, and Mario Kart 8: Deluxe drops to fifth place, despite a 100 per cent increase. Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, Forza Horizon 4, Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, and Red Dead Redemption 2 make up the remainder of the top ten.
Nioh 2, which was No.1, slipped by 55 per cent in sales. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX fell by 24 per cent in sales, and Two Point Hospital decreased by eight per cent, though all three games were new launches last week. Retailers claim that there has been a surge in the demand for video games because people are staying home to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.
