MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
It’s been an exciting month at retail, with four new titles in the UK Top Ten for June, plus a few more outside of it.
Crash Bandicoot emerged victorious, with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled taking the top spot of the monthly physical charts. Back on its launch week, GfK noted it was the second biggest launch for a Crash Bandicoot title after the N. Sane Trilogy. And there’s still a way to go for Crash Team Racing to reach the heights of the 2017 hit, which shifted 30 per cent more copies in four days than Nitro Fueled did in nine days.
The Crash Team Racing remake sold primarily on PS4 (65 per cent of the copies sold), followed by the Switch (18 per cent) and finally the Xbox One (17 per cent).
Despite the wealth of new titles hitting shelves in June, it’s FIFA 19 that took No.2 in the monthly charts, with sales up 68 per cent month-on-month, boosted by Sony’s Days of Play sale and the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Debuting at No.3 was Super Mario Maker 2, which was at the top of the weekly charts earlier this week. As mentioned then, the Switch exclusive is enjoying a good ride compared to its predecessor, with launch sales up 85.5 per cent compared to Wii U’s Super Mario Maker, released in 2015, and 241.4 per cent up compared to the 3DS version that launched in 2016. Even adding up launch sales for both the Wii U and 3DS versions, Super Mario Maker 2 still has sold 20 per cent more copies on its first week than the two SKUs combined.
Meanwhile, F1 2019 debuted at No.5, with sales on a par with F1 2018’s launch sales, only slightly down 2.9 per cent compared to last year’s entry, as we noted in the weekly charts.
PSVR exclusive Blood & Truth charted at No.9 for its first month in the listings, to very decent sales for a VR title. It shifted 137 per cent more copies on its first month than Astro Bot Rescue Mission, another title developed by Sony itself for its VR headset, released in October 2018.
Before we leave the Top Ten, it should be noted at Sega’s Team Sonic Racing did really well for its second month in the charts, landing at No.10 with sales going up 30 per cent month-on-month.
Further down the charts, Cricket 19: The Official Game of the Ashes debuted at No.18, while Sega’s Judgment entered the listings at No.44.
Doom VFR, which released in December 2017, made its grand debut in the monthly charts at No.35 this June, boosted by Sony’s Days of Play as it was bundled in the PSVR Mega Pack.
After a couple of months of decrease, the market was on the rise in June, with revenue increasing 46 per cent month-on-month and unit sales going up 59 per cent. It was on a par with June 2018 as well, with revenue only slightly down one per cent year-on-year and the number of copies shifted decreasing 2.8 per cent. On top of Sony’s Days of Play sales, which undoubtedly boosted the market as a whole this month, a successful E3 2019 probably also contributed to this good month at retail.
Nintendo was still the best-selling publisher this June, followed by Activision and Sony.
Here’s the Top Ten for the period from May 26th to June 29th 2019 (data courtesy of GfK/Ukie):
| Rank | Title | Publisher |
| 1 | Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled – NEW | Activision |
| 2 | FIFA 19 | EA |
| 3 | Super Mario Maker 2 – NEW | Nintendo |
| 4 | Days Gone | Sony |
| 5 | F1 2019 – NEW | Codemasters |
| 6 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo |
| 7 | Red Dead Redemption 2 | Rockstar |
| 8 | Forza Horizon 4 | Microsoft |
| 9 | Blood & Truth – NEW | Sony |
| 10 | Team Sonic Racing | Sega |
