UK Charts Dominated By World Of WarCraft

Although there was only one major new release in the UK last week, the first expansion for the hugely popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of WarCraft has dominated the charts. Despite being released on a Tuesday instead of the more traditional Friday, it narrowly missed out (by under one thousand units) on beating the record for the fastest ever selling PC title in the UK, currently held by Eidos’ Championship Manager 04. The Burning Crusade’s success has still been remarkable, though, accounting for 30 percent of all PC titles sold during the week – although this is again lower than Championship Manager 04’s record of 40 percent in April 2003. The expansion outsold the original World of WarCraft’s launch week by a factor of almost 4 to 1, a unique feat for any expansion. Other movement in the chart has been limited, with Lost Planet and WarioWare moving down only one space – although Capcom’s Xbox 360 title outsold its rival by more than 2 to 1. As the current snooker championships continue on UK television, Sega’s official tie-in saw sales rise by 44 percent, to launch it into the top ten at number six. As well as the original version of World of WarCraft re-entering at number twenty-eight, the top forty also contains a number of PC “super budget” titles, which have become a regular feature of the post-Christmas chart in the UK. eGames’ Galaxy of Games Red debuted as high as number twenty-four, with arcade conversion Sega Rally from GSP at number twenty-seven and Puppy Luv at number thirty-one.

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2007. ELSPA Ltd