Hitman 3 beats its predecessor to claim No.1 | UK Box Charts

Hitman 3 ranked first on the UK charts, with launch sales 17% above its predecessor.

Developed and owned by IO Interactive, the boxed launch of Hitman 3 was made by Square Enix, the company that previously owned the franchise before letting it go. The latest game, Hitman 2 of 2018, was published by Warner Bros.

The PS5 version of the game was by far the dominant edition, accounting for 49% of sales. The Xbox version accounted for 27%, while the PS4 version accounted for 25%. Of course, these are just physical games, the majority of Hitman 3 sales will have taken place in the digital download space.

Hitman’s debut at the top of the charts means Animal Crossing: New Horizons drops to No. 2, although only 800 games separate the two titles. Animal Crossing’s sales fell 8% week by week.

Some new PS5 consoles were launched on the market last week, which had a positive impact on some titles. Spider-Man: Miles Morales rose 161%, jumping from 12th to 5th position, Demon’s Souls re-entered the charts at position 27 with a 291% increase in sales and there were spikes in sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (56% increase and driven by the PlayStation version) and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (7% increase, but with the PS5 version up to 174%). In total, sales of PS5 games increased 324% week by week.

Another big challenge was Ring Fit Adventure. The Nintendo Switch fitness game often climbed the charts during the pandemic whenever new stocks hit the market. The game rises to 7th position with a 47% increase in sales.

Here is the Top Ten GfK for the week ending January 23: