Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl Dominate UK Retail Charts on Debut

It was a big week for the physical UK charts last week with a couple of major releases. As per data released by the Gfk (via GamesIndustry), Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl dominated the charts. The former debuted on top, with the latter coming in at second place, while a double pack bundling both games together was ranked No. 9. 

Collectively, the two games have seen the best launch for a Switch game in the UK this year, surpassing Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. The remakes are collectively also the second biggest launch of the year in the region across all platforms, second only to FIFA 22. Physical launch sales are up 13% from 2018’s Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Let’s Go! Eevee, but down 26% from 2019’s Pokemon Sword and Shield. 

Debuting in third place is Battlefield 2042, which has seen a 59% drop in physical launch sales from 2018’s Battlefield 5- though sales are likely to be solid for the game once digital numbers are taken into account, given the rise in digital sales over the last couple of years. Battlefield 2042 saw 50% of its launch sales coming on the PS5, 20% on the PS4, 17% on the Xbox One, and 13% on Xbox Series X/S. 

Call of Duty: Vanguard, which was at No. 1 last week, drops down to fourth place, while FIFA 22 occupies fifth place. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales saw a whopping 366% increase in sales from last week thanks to a fresh batch of PS5 stock in the UK, and moves up to No. 6 from No. 14. Forza Horizon 5, which debuted in fourth place last week, sees a 56% drop in sales and drops down to No. 16, while Jurassic World Evolution 2 drops from No. 6 to No. 23 after a 66% drop. Meanwhile, Shin Megami Tensei 5 drops out of the charts entirely. 

Meanwhile, a number of Ubisoft games also saw significant boosts in sales thanks to Black Friday deals, with Far Cry 6 at No. 8 (up 180%), Just Dance 2022 at No. 10 (up 232%), Riders Republic at No. 14 (up 169%), and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at No. 15 (up 462%). 

You can check out the full top 10 for the week ending November 20 below.