Mario Kart Wii bursts into UK charts: biggest Mario launch week ever
Turns out you don’t need super shiny cars to sell a racing game. At least, not according to the latest UK software charts, where Mario Kart Wii bursts into first place in its first week out, overtaking Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Aside from this, Mario Kart Wii also got more sales in its first week than if you combined all the first week sales of previous Mario titles on the Wii. More details after the “read more” link below.
It seems that the reports of bugs and cheating didn’t deter gamers in the UK from falling in love with the latest Mario game, Mario Kart Wii. Only in its first week out in the region, the game has already taken the lead in top spot.
Perhaps the game’s arrival has broken the spell that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games had over UK gamers? Mario Kart Wii even beat fellow racing game, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which had been enjoying top spot for two weeks prior.
According to Chart Track, Mario Kart Wii has the biggest launch of any Nintendo published title yet, beating the launch weeks of all 5 other Wii Mario games. Not only that. It also beat all of their numbers combined.
Combine all the sales of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Strikers, Mario Party 8, and Super Paper Mario at their launch weeks. Mario Kart Wii beat that number. That’s saying something.
It would be interesting to see how long Mario Kart Wii can maintain its lead. Here are the rest of the entries in the UK video game sales charts for the week ending on April 12:
- Mario Kart Wii
- Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
- Mario & Sonic at The Olympic games
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2008
- Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
- Condemned 2
- Wii Play
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
- Carnival: Funfair Games
Via Chart Track
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