Modern Warfare 3 topped Sainsbury’s sales list

In its first week of release, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the single best selling product at supermarket giant Sainsbury’s.

It’s one of the starkest illustrations yet of the changing landscape of the games retail sector in the UK.

The Telegraph reports that the retailer also predicts that its best selling item this week won’t be milk or bread or Vegemite – it will be the DVD release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. It is targeting 420k unit sales of the SKU before Christmas.

Commercial director Mike Coupe has outlined plans to increase non-food sales by 70 per cent.

In total Sainsbury’s owns about ten per cent of the UK’s overall non-food market and 17 per cent of its grocery market. The aim is to grow non-food to match this.

And with non-food growing at between two and three times the rate of food, this target certainly looks attainable.

The news comes as the UK’s leading games specialist GAME has had to fend off doom-mongers following a terrible set of financials.