Tomb Raider has debuted at the top of the UK charts, according to UKIE. The reboot has sold twice as many copies as both the title with the best launch of the year so far – Aliens: Colonial Marines – and the previous best launch in the series itself, Tomb Raider: Legend (2006). As far as individual formats are concerned, both the PS3 and 360 versions of the game set new records for the Tomb Raider series as the fastest selling in week one, a record previously held by Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness on the PS2.
SimCity, despite the issues preventing many from even playing it, has managed to make it to second place in the charts. As with Aliens: Colonial Marines, however, this is presumably a case of people who already planned to buy the game doing so before they knew of any criticism that might be held against it. UKIE says the game debuted “strongly” at number two but doesn't provide figures so we can't know how well it performed compared to Tomb Raider. That said, SimCity is currently only available on one platform, whereas Tomb Raider is available on three.
Refreshingly for a year in which the charts so far have been full of relatively old titles, numbers three and four are also held by newcomers: Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and The Sims 3: University Life. It's impressive for an expansion pack to outsell a regular big-seller like FIFA 13 (at number five this week), but then again a large portion of those who own The Sims 3 will probably buy nearly every expansion pack.
Are you glad Tomb Raider has made it to the top? Or do you think another title should have sold better?