Master Chief conquers UK as Halo 4 tops All Formats charts

Microsoft proves the Spartan super soldier still has what it takes as Halo 4 debuts at No.1 in the UK charts.

The return of Master Chief narrowly outsold the previous chart-topper, Assassin’s Creed, which settles for second place. The Ubisoft title saw its sales drop 73 per cent when compared with last week.

Halo 4 is the UK’s 18th biggest SKU launch by week one sales, but fails to match the success of its predecessors: 2007’s Halo 3 remains the 15th biggest launch, while 2010’s Halo: Reach is currently 12th.

Halo 4 is also the 16th game this year to launch on a Tuesday or Wednesday, classed by stat-tracker Chart-Track as an ‘event title launch’. There are only two more event titles left for 2012: tomorrow’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and Square Enix’s Hitman Absolution on November 20th.

Elsewhere in the Top 10, FIFA 13 holds onto third place after a slight sales dip at 13 per cent. Meanwhile, fellow EA title Need for Speed: Most Wanted swaps places with Football Manager 2013, now at No.4 and No.5 respectively.

Also notable in the Top 10 is the re-entry of Borderlands 2. The game climbed 11 places to No.8, propelled by a 180 per cent rise in sales and a TV-advertised price promotion at GAME.

Other than Halo 4, the only new entry in the Top 40 was Sony’s LittleBigPlanet Karting, which debuted at No.24.

Here’s the UK All Formats Top 20 in full for the week ending November 10th, 2012:

1. Halo 4 (Microsoft)
2. Assassin’s Creed III (Ubisoft)
3. FIFA 13 (EA)
4. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
5. Football Manager 2013 (Sega)
6. Skylanders Giants (Activision)
7. WWE ’13 (THQ)
8. Borderlands 2
9. Just Dance 4 (Ubisoft)
10. Medal of Honor: Warfighter (EA)
11. Forza Horizon (Microsoft)
12. Moshi Monsters: Moshlings Theme Park (Activision/Mind Candy)
13. Resident Evil 6 (Capcom)
14. Dishonored (Bethesda)
15. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
16. Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Nintendo)
17. F1 2012 (Codemasters)
18. New Super Mario Bros 2 (Nintendo)
19. Forza Motorsport 4 (Microsoft)
20. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes