Gears of War: Judgment is No.1 but sales down massively on GOW3

Microsoft’s Gears of War: Judgment has debuted at the top of the UKIE GfK All Formats Top 40… but the news isn’t all rosy.

Its predecessor Gears of War 3 sold four times as many copies as its sequel achieved in its first week in the UK.

There are factors to consider, of course. GOW3 launched on a Tuesday, meaning it had three more days on the market in its first week than Judgment. And GOW3 was a September release, which arguably is a more active consumer window than March.

Nonetheless, Judgment becomes the latest in a long line of IP that over the last 12 months have dropped sales compared to their predecessors.

Activision’s critically panned The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct proves the importance of a license by managing to debut in third place while Nintendo will probably be quite chuffed with the seventh place debut for Capcom’s Monster Hunter Ultimate 3.

Here’s the UK Top 20 for the week ending March 23rd:
1. Gears of War: Judgment (Microsoft)
2. Tomb Raider (Square Enix)
3. The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct (Activision)
4. FIFA 13 (EA)
5. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 (City Interactive)
6. God of War: Ascension (Sony)
7. Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate (Capcom)
8. SimCity (EA)
9. Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops II (Activision)
11. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (Konami)
12. Crysis 3 (EA)
13. Assassin’s Creed III (Ubisoft)
14. Skylanders Giants (Activision)
15. Need for Speed Most Wanted (EA)
16. Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega)
17. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Bethesda)
18. Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed (Sega)
19. Hitman Absolution (Square Enix)
20. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (Warner Bros)