Archive for November, 2016

Pokémon Sun/Moon wins Black Friday week

Monday, November 28th, 2016

As always when a Pokémon game sees release there is much activity at retail and the launch of Pokémon Sun/Moon was no exception. In fact, if you combine the sales of the two versions it handedly won this week’s UK retail chart, however, as the two versions of the game for some reason are counted separately, the official all formats win goes to FIFA 17. However, the two best selling SKUs of the week was Pokémon Sun and Moon, so there really is no debate who the real winner is.

Several PS4 exclusives re-entered the charts or made massive gains on the back of this being the strongest week of hardware sales for PS4 since the launch. A great comeback from Sony who have been falling behind Microsoft in hardware sales in recent months in the UK.

All Formats (all prices):

1. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
2. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision
3. Pokémon Sun / Nintendo (new)
4. Pokémon Moon / Nintendo (new)
5. Battlefield 1 / EA Games
6. Watch Dogs 2 / Ubisoft
7. Forza Horizon 3 / Microsoft
8. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End / Sony
9. Grand Theft Auto V / Rockstar
10. Gears of War 4 / Microsoft

Clean Bandit’s Rockabye keeps Mannequin Challenge song off singles throne

Saturday, November 26th, 2016

Clean Bandit are at the top of the UK Official Singles Chart for the third week in a row.

The group’s ‘Rockabye’, featuring Anne-Marie and Sean Paul, fended off competition from the Mannequin Challenge song ‘Black Beatles’ by Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane.

‘Rockabye’ managed combined sales of 74,000, and was also the most streamed and most purchased track of the week, earning 31,000 downloads and 4.3 million streams.

Behind it at No.2 is ‘Black Beatles’, which shot up from No.4 in part due to its use in the Mannequin Challenge videos being uploaded by everyone from Beyoncé to the England football team.

Little Mix, who have just claimed their first ever UK No.1 album with Glory Days, stay at No.3 with ‘Shout Out To My Ex’, followed by fellow X Factor veteran James Arthur with ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’. Bruno Mars rounds off the Top 5 with ’24K Magic’.

A new entry to the Top 20 this week is Swedish DJ Nevada with his Fetty Wap-featuring track ‘The Mack’, which moves up to 17.

The Weeknd has also scored three spots in the Top 40, with ‘I Feel It Coming’ featuring Daft Punk at 18, ‘Party Monster’ at 33 and ‘Starboy’ (again with Daft Punk) the highest-placed at No.8.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Infinite Warfare gets a third week at number one in the charts

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016

Despite a fall in sales of 46%, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has retained the top spot in the charts for a third week, fending off competition from Watch Dogs 2 which made its debut this week (in the process selling 80% less retail copies than its predecessor did back in 2013, according to GI.biz).

FIFA 17 slips down to third place, with Battlefield at four, to make way for Ubisoft’s hacking game. WWE 2K17 rises back into the top 10 with a sales increase of 173%, charting at number five, probably helped by Black Friday sales, and Dishonored 2 drops from four to seven. The Ezio Collection also sneaks into the top 10 at number 10. Here is the top 10 in full:

1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision
2. Watch Dogs 2 / Ubisoft
3. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
4. Battlefield 1 / EA Games
5. WWE 2K17 / 2K
6. Forza Horizon 3 / Microsoft
7. Dishonored 2 / Bethesda Softworks
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition / Bethesda
9. Grand Theft Auto V / Rockstar
10. Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection / Ubisoft

Clean Bandit score second week at Number 1 on Official Singles Chart

Friday, November 18th, 2016

Clean Bandit claim a second week at Number 1 with Rockabye on this week’s Official Singles Chart.

The trio’s latest track, which features Anne-Marie and Sean Paul, notched up 76,000 chart sales to keep the top spot, made up of 34,400 downloads and 4.18 million streams.

Rockabye is Clean Bandit’s second Number 1 single following Rather Be in 2014, the first for featured singer Anne-Marie and the third chart-topper for Sean Paul, after Breathe with Blu Cantrell (2003) and What About Us with The Saturdays (2013).

Elsewhere in the Top 10, hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd zoom 32 places to Number 4 with Black Beatles ft. Guuci Mane. The track has taken off across the world thanks in part to its use as the unofficial theme song of the #MannequinChallenge.

Stockholm producer Nevada enters the Top 40 this week at 23 (up 21 places) with his debut single The Mack; a re-working of Mark Morrison’s Return Of The Mack, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Meanwhile, Olly Murs’ Grow Up climbs 36 spots to Number 25 to give him his 18th Top 40 single.

Nathan Sykes’ Famous, taken from his debut solo album Unfinished Business, leaps from 62 to 28, and Robbie Williams bags his first Top 40 single in three years with Love My Life, up 24 places to 28.

Finally, The xx’s brand new single On Hold debuts at Number 38, and Sigma’s Find Me ft. Birdy lifts seven spots to 39.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Infinite Warfare holds strong at the top of the charts

Monday, November 14th, 2016

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has retained the top spot in the charts this week, a reassuring achievement for Infinity Ward after disappointing sales and criticisms regarding their policy towards PC crossplay.

FIFA 17 sees a 6% increase in sales, moving to second place and pushing Battlefield 1 into third. Dishonored 2 is the only debut in the top ten, reaching number four and seeing a 38% decrease in sales compared to the original back in 2012. It’s entry into the charts pushes Skyrim Special Edition to five.

Overwatch and Forza Horizon both saw increases in sales, as did Lego Dimensions, which saw a whopping 556% increase in sales, placing it at number nine. Here is the top 10 in full:

1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare / Activision
2. FIFA 17 / EA Sports
3. Battlefield 1 / EA Games
4. Dishonored 2 / Bethesda Softworks
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition / Bethesda
6. Forza Horizon 3 / Microsoft
7. Overwatch / Blizzard
8. Titanfall 2 / EA Games
9. Lego Dimensions / Lego Dimensions
10. Star Wars Battlefront / EA Games

This gaming news can be discussed here

Clean Bandit knock Little Mix off their No.1 spot

Sunday, November 13th, 2016

Clean Bandit are ruling the charts after knocking Little Mix off the No.1 spot.

Despite being a member down, the group are in the top position with their Sean Paul and Anne Marie collaboration ‘Rockabye’ after snagging 2,000 combined chart sales, comprised of 37,000 downloads and 3.5 million streams.

“Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening to this song,” Clean Bandit said. “‘Rockabye’ is a song that means a lot to us and it means even more to us that so many of you are listening to it and liking it. Thank you!”

That means Little Mix slip to two with ‘Shout Out To My Ex’ while James Arthur drops a place to three with ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’, The Weeknd stays at four with ‘Starboy’ and Bruno Mars round off the Top 5 with ’24k Magic’ after climbing a spot.

Elsewhere, Maroon 5’s Kendrick Lamar collaboration ‘Don’t Wanna Know’ climbs four places to seven, to give the band their ninth Top 10 single.

Louisa Johnson’s ‘So Good’ leaps seven places to 13 while The Vamps nab their eighth Top 40 hit with ‘Black Beatles’ ft. Gucci Mane at 36.

Finally, Fifth Harmony soar 11 places to 26 with their single ‘That’s My Girl’.

See this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full

Legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen dies at age 82

Friday, November 11th, 2016

Iconic singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen has died at the age of 82.

The sad news of the Grammy-winning musician’s passing from undisclosed causes was announced on his Facebook page early on Friday morning (November 10).

A statement from Sony Music Canada read: “It is with profound sorrow we report that legendary poet, songwriter and artist, Leonard Cohen has passed away.

“We have lost one of music’s most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief.”

Along with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, Cohen’s confessional songwriting set the tone for the singer-songwriter movement of the early and mid-1970s.

Cohen actually started out as a novelist, but turned to the budding folk music scene in the late 1960s when he failed to make a living with his writing in spite of wide critical acclaim.

Highlights of his early work included the country-tinged ‘Bird on the Wire’, which has been covered throughout the decades by the likes of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Joe Cocker.

Arguably his most commercially successful track was 1984’s spiritually-tinged ‘Hallelujah’, which reached an entirely new generation a decade later when it was re-imagined by the late Jeff Buckley.

Through the years, Cohen has been honoured with induction in the Rock and Roll and Canadian Music Halls of Fame and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 – among many other prestigious music prizes.

Cohen’s 14th student album You Want It Darker was only released in October, and received some of the best reviews of his later career.

This music news can be discussed here

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare tops gaming chart

Monday, November 7th, 2016

The world’s most successful shooter has taken a hit this week as sales of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare are half the size of its predecessor, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3.

The GfK Chart-Track reveals that sales of Xbox One and PS4 releases of the game were down 43.6%. Add that to the lack of release on old-gen consoles and the retail situation for Infinite Warfare is nowhere near as bright as .

It’s worth mentioning here that even a sales drop of 50% is still a wild commercial success by the standards of most games. Industry analyst Michael Pachter has estimated that Black Ops 3 sold 22 million units. The Call of Duty franchise as a whole has now shifted over 250 million copies worldwide; that’s a lot to live up to.

Before release Activision has acknowledged that sales would probably be weaker for Infinite Warfare as it is an unknown Call of Duty brand, unlike Black Ops. This unfamiliarity won’t be doing the game any favours against Battlefield 1, EA’s First World War shooter, though it currently stands one place above it in the charts.

Shooters dominate the top 5, though EA is probably disappointed to see Titanfall 2 take fifth position beneath Skyrim Special Edition and FIFA 17.

This month will probably see this order overturned yet again with the imminent release of The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV. Until then, Call of Duty remains the king of the castle.

The full chart list for the past week is as follows:

  1. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Activision)
  2. Battlefield 1 (EA)
  3. FIFA 17 (EA)
  4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
  5. Titanfall 2 (EA)
  6. Football Manager 2017 (Sega)
  7. Skylanders Imaginators (Activision)
  8. Mafia III (2K Games)
  9. Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar)
  10. Forza Horizon 3 (Microsoft)

This gaming chart can be discussed here

Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex claims a third week at Number 1

Friday, November 4th, 2016

Little Mix’s Shout Out To My Ex is the UK’s Official Number 1 single for a third consecutive week.

A combined chart sales tally of 79,000 sees Jade, Jesy, Leigh-Anne and Perrie reign supreme on the Official Singles Chart once more. SOTME joins Black Magic as the girls’ longest-reigning Number 1 single. Their first two chart toppers Cannonball and Wings each spent a sole week at the top.

James Arthur’s Say You Won’t Let Go hold firm at Number 2 this week for the third straight week, and was this week’s most streamed track. James very nearly complete a singles and albums chart double – his second album Back from the Edge is Number 1 on this week’s Official Albums Chart.

Up four places to climb into the Top 3 for the first time is Rockabye, Clean Bandit’s infectious collaboration with Sean Paul and Anne-Marie. The song marks Clean Bandit’s sixth Top 5 appearance, Sean Paul’s 11th and Anne-Marie’s first.

New entries and high climbers

Bruno Mars’ X Factor and Live Lounge performances of 24K Magic send it up the Official Singles Chart Top 10, rising five places to a new peak of Number 6. Drake’s Fake Love becomes his eighth Top 10 hit and fourth of 2016, rising from last week’s 37 to this week’s Number 10.

Maroon 5’s hook-up with Kendrick Lamar also continues to scale the chart – Don’t Wanna Know vaults six places to reach a new personal best of Number 11. Galantis and Hook N Sling also reach a new peak with their track Love On Me, up nine to Number 18.

X Factor winner Louisa Johnson is this week’s highest new entry with So Good, new at Number 20. Louisa is just ahead of Jonas Blue, who along with Raye is new at 21 with By Your Side.

Finally, after six weeks on chart, Kideko and George Kwali’s Crank It (Woah!) makes its Top 40 debut, rising 10 places to Number 32.

Check out this week’s Top 100 Official Singles Chart in full here