Sales numbers from the UK video game market have revealed that Watch Dogs has set a new record for biggest new IP launch. Ubisoft’s open world hacking game beat the previous record holder, Rockstar’s L.A. Noire, by 50%. In fact, Watch Dogs is the 17th biggest launch in UK video game history. Only games from the Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fifa and Grand Theft Auto franchises have sold better in their first week.
Watch Dogs has benefited from a huge marketing campaign in the country. Sony have been very involved in advertising the game in order to promote Watch Dogs’ PlayStation exclusive content. The gamble seems to have paid off. The vast majority of the game’s physical sales were on the PS4 which helped the platform sell 94% more than it did the week before.
Yet Watch Dogs isn’t the only success story this week. Mario Kart 8 is the Wii U’s biggest UK launch so far and is the second highest Mario Kart launch to date. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo’s kart racer has been an incredibly powerful system seller, helping the Wii U achieve a 666% increase in sales compared with the week before.
Via Eurogamer