UK CHARTS: FIFA scores no.1

Weeks ahead of the official kick off of the World Cup next month, EA’s licensed video game tie-in 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa has scored an early goal by debuting right at the top of the GfK ChartTrack All Formats Top 40 this week.

In doing so it successfully skips over a sliding tackle from Capcom’s Super Street Fighter IV, which has to settle for number two in its first week on the shelves. There’s a third entry in the Top Ten, too – Sony’s PS3 only God of War Collection in tenth position.

The success at the top forces ongoing chart champ Just Dance into third place and knocks last week’s number one, Splinter Cell: Conviction into number four.

It’s a big result for EA, too, as the game becomes its third number one of the year, joining former chart winners Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Mass Effect 2. EA is the only publisher to claim three individual number ones in 2010.

Elsewhere in the listings, Sega’s Iron man 2 debuts in twentieth. There’s a re-entry for EA’s savagely discounted Mirror’s Edge in 25th and Sega’s Yakuza 3 sneaks into the charts at number 35.

Here’s the ELSPA GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 in full (for the week ending May 1st 2010):
1. 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (EA)
2. Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom)
3. Just Dance (Ubisoft)
4. Splinter Cell: Conviction (Ubisoft)
5. Grand Theft Auto Episodes – Liberty City
6. Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo)
7. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)
8. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (EA)
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision)
10. God of War Collection (Sony)