UK charts – all change at top as Christmas sales roll on

This week EA’s Need for Speed Underground 2 trades places with Rockstar’s GTA: San Andreas, taking the top spot in the UK all formats chart, up from 2nd place last week. The game looks set to repeat last year’s performance, which saw the original NFSU chart strongly throughout the Christmas period, and considering that this year it’s up against the might of Grand Theft Auto, that is no mean feat.

The festive period also sees a return to top form for the big football games, FIFA 2005 and PES4, as they surge back up the chart to take 3rd and 4th place respectively. Both games have proven themselves to be popular winter purchases in the past and can expect to be amongst the most popular games released this year. Major FPS titles Halo 2 and Half Life 2 continue to ride high in the chart – Half Life 2 drops considerably, however, placing 9th, down from 3rd, while Halo 2 slips one place from 4th. Could the impact of Steam sales see HL2 drop from the chart soon? Time will tell.

Brand awareness is out in force once again, with THQ returning with grappler WWE Smackdown Vs Raw, and The Incredibles, while The Getaway from Sony and Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 from Activision all find a place in the top 20 list. Once again the chart is dominated by EA titles: The Urbz: Sims in the City, Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, The Sims 2, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age and the Latest Tiger Woods golf offering, placing a total of 7 titles in the chart. Despite this, Activision, THQ and Sony chart strongly with a number of titles and even Sega makes an appearance with Football Manager 2005 and Sega Superstars.

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes fails to make it into the top 20 chart, despite being one of the few hotly anticipated GameCube releases of late and with a range of new titles due for release next week, most notably Call of Duty: Finest Hour, it seems likely that casualties may rack up during the busy December month.