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It’s a brand new Top 4 in the UK physical charts this week, with only around 1,600 sales separating No.1 from No.4.
But in the end it’s Platinum Games’ new IP Astral Chain that took the top of the charts. The Nintendo Switch exclusive sold 36 per cent more copies at launch than Platinum’s previous game, Nier Automata, which initially came out on PS4 only in March 2017.
Taking No.2 in the weekly charts was Bugbear and THQ Nordic’s Wreckfest, which first came out on Steam Early Access in 2014 as Next Car Game.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan meanwhile debuted at No.3, having sold just 258 fewer copies than Wreckfest. The Supermassive title, published by Bandai Namco, has predominantly sold on PS4 (81 per cent of its copies, versus 19 per cent on Xbox One). Man of Medan doesn’t reach the height of Supermassive’s 2015 hit Until Dawn though, selling 61 per cent less copies at launch than the PS4 exclusive.
Man of Medan sold 303 more copies than this week’s No.4, Remedy and 505 Games’ Control. The PS4 and Xbox One title sold 58.7 per cent less copies than Remedy’s previous title, Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break, did at launch back in 2016.
There was no surprise in the rest of the Top Ten, though Sony’s Spider-Man made an impressive comeback from No.34 to No.8 following a 221 per cent increase in sales week-on-week thanks to a price drop.
Further down the charts, Square Enix’s Collection of Mana debuted at No.22.
This Top 40 officially marked the end of a slow summer in terms of sales, with the market now up 38 per cent in units and 50 per cent in value week-on-week. It was down year-on-year though, with a 15.3 per cent decrease in units and 12.2 per cent in revenue compared to the same period last year.
Here’s the Top Ten for the week ending August 31st 2019 (data courtesy of Gfk/Ukie):
| Rank | Title | Publisher |
| 1 | Astral Chain – NEW | Nintendo |
| 2 | Wreckfest – NEW | THQ Nordic |
| 3 | The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan – NEW | Bandai Namco |
| 4 | Control – NEW | 505 Games |
| 5 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo |
| 6 | Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled | Activision |
| 7 | Super Mario Maker 2 | Nintendo |
| 8 | Marvel’s Spider-Man | Sony |
| 9 | Grand Theft Auto V | Rockstar |
| 10 | Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 | Ubisoft |
