LA Noire pumps £10m into retail

Rockstar has done it again, with new IP L.A. Noire providing a major boost to UK games retail.

24m was taken by UK games stores last week – the highest figure since the first week of the year. MCV estimates that over 10m was generated by L.A. Noire alone, and in just two days.

All of this makes the detective title the most successful new IP launch in UK games industry’s history.

According to GfK Chart-Track, L.A. Noire’s debut weekend sales performance is in line with last year’s Red Dead Redemption. The Wild West action game arrived in May 2010 and ended the year as the fourth biggest selling game.

It is long overdue relief for UK games retail, which has suffered a tough year so far. Two weeks ago just 573,506 games were sold at retail – the lowest number in almost five years.

L.A. Noire was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 last week, with 58 per cent of sales coming on Microsoft’s format.

In total, 876,986 games were sold at retail last week.