Will Wright’s Spore debuted at number on in the UK sales charts after stiff competition from EA’s own Mercenaries 2. Spore topped the individual format charts, accounting for 53 percent of all PC game sales during the week. On the combined format charts, though, it was the poorly-reviewed but heavily advertised, Mercenaries 2 which took the number one spot. The Xbox 360 version (debuting at number two in the individual format charts) accounted for 60 percent of sales, with the PlayStation 3 (at number six) on 33 percent and the PlayStation 2 and PC on 7 percent. After already enjoying the most successful debut for the series so far, combined sales of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 rose 9 percent over it launch week -- with the Wii version becoming the best selling individual version. The increase kept Spore at number three in the combined format charts, meaning Electronic Arts had control of the entire top three. Back in the individual format charts the highest new entry outside the top 10 was Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise for the Xbox 360. This marks a considerable improvement on the previous game’s performance, which failed to chart anywhere in the top 40 on its debut -– a fate which this time befell the Nintendo DS game Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise. Also new at number 21 is PC title S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky, published by Koch Media, which failed to match the top 10 performance of its predecessor. Meanwhile, Square Enix’s Infinite Undiscovery on Xbox 360 entered the charts just a few places below at number 23. Although they launched last week, DS titles Imagine: Teacher from Ubisoft and Driving Theory Training from Atari made their first appearance in the top 40 at numbers 25 and 33, respectively. The final new entry of the week was Spore Creatures on DS at number 36, just ahead of re-entries Family Ski (aka We Ski) on Wii at number 37 and Sega’s Football Manager 2008 on PC at number 39. Overall in the top 40 there were 12 titles each for the Nintendo DS and Wii, six each for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, four for the PC and zero for the PlayStation 2 and PSP.

Leisure software charts compiled by Chart Track, (C)2008. ELSPA Ltd