Archive for December, 2019

LadBaby score second Official Christmas Number 1 with I Love Sausage Rolls

Friday, December 20th, 2019

LadBaby is officially on a (sausage) roll as he is crowned the UK’s Official Christmas Number 1 for a second year in a row and sets a new chart record, the Official Charts Company can confirm.

LadBaby beat Stormzy’s Own It ft. Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy to the Number 1 spot, holding at Number 2, while a strong challenge from Wham!’s Last Christmas sees the 35-year-old festive classic finish at Number 5. The track is the best seller of the week on vinyl, topping this Official Vinyl Singles Chart with just under 5,000 sales after being given a limited edition 7” release. Last Christmas originally peaked at Number 2, missing out on the Christmas Number 1 in 1984 to Band Aid.

Another Christmas essential, Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, is at Number 8, marking its return to the Top 10 for a fourth consecutive year.

Over a third of this week’s Top 40 is made up of new and classic festive songs, including Pogues’ Fairytale of New York ft. Kirsty MacColl (14); Shakin’ Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone (16); Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas (17); Elton John’s Step Into Christmas (19); Michael Buble’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas (24); Leona Lewis’s One More Sleep (25);

Further down the Top 40, there’s Ariana Grande’s Santa Tell Me (28); Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday (29); Slade’s Merry Xmas Everybody (31); Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (32); Kelly Clarkson’s Underneath The Tree (33); John Legend’s Happy Christmas (War Is Over) (34); and Sia’s Santa’s Coming For Us (36).

A last-minute challenge to get Jarvis Cocker’s political song Running The World into this year’s Official Christmas Chart narrowly misses out on the Top 40, landing at Number 48.

Meanwhile, Stormzy lands two new entries in the Top 40 from his new album Heavy Is The Head: Audacity ft. Headie One enters at Number 6, and Lessons lands at Number 9.

Harry Styles bags three Top 40 entries following the release of his new album Fine Line, led by Adore You at 12, Watermelon Sugar, up 29 places to 18, and Falling at 39.

Finally, Juice Wrld’s Lucid Dreams re-enters the Top 40 at 27 following his death last week.

View this week’s Official Christmas Singles Chart Top 100 in full

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Modern Warfare tops the gaming charts again

Monday, December 16th, 2019

Call of Duty is no stranger to the top spot on the UK physical charts, nor is Modern Warfare in particular, which has sealed yet another week at number one, sitting a mere 3,000 sales above Respawn and EA’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz

Modern Warfare actually dipped 10% in terms of sales compared to last week, with last week’s number one – FIFA 20 – falling to number three after a 41% drop in sales. Fallen Order, however, rose 30% compared to last week, putting it agonisingly close to Call of Duty.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has fallen 30% in terms of sales week-on-week, sitting at number four just above Luigi’s Mansion 3, with just 2,000 units separating the two. In fact, there are nine Mario titles in the top 40 overall, so he’s proving to be popular.

Below you can see the full top 10. What can be Christmas number one next week?

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare / Activision
2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order / EA
3. FIFA 20 / EA Sports
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe / Nintendo
5. Luigi’s Mansion 3 / Nintendo
6. Pokémon Sword / Nintendo
7. Just Dance 2020 / Ubisoft
8. Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympic Games / Sega
9. Tekken 7 / Bandai Namco
10. Project Cars 2 / Bandai Namco

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Tones and I matches record for longest running Number 1 by a female artist

Friday, December 6th, 2019

It’s a perfect 10 for Tones and I as she celebrates another week at the top of the Official Singles Chart, and enters the chart record books into the bargain.

The Australian singer-songwriter’s international hit Dance Monkey has notched up an impressive ten straight weeks at Number 1, matching the record for longest running chart-topper by a female artist, sharing the accolade with two pop greats.

Tones and I now joins Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You, from 1992, and Rihanna’s Umbrella, from 2007, in the rundown of longest reigns at the top. This week Dance Monkey racked up combined sales of 75,000, including 9.39m streams, and if Tones and I can hang on for another week, the record will belong to her alone.

Arizona Zervas breaks the Top 5 with Roxanne, rising two slots to Number 5, and Mariah Carey sleighs her way back into the Top 10 as her festive favourite All I Want For Christmas Is You zooms 26 places to Number 8.

The Weeknd scores two new entries: Heartless gives him a seventh Top 10, rocketing 54 places to 10, and Blinding Lights goes straight in at 12.

Ellie Goulding leaps 43 places to enter the Top 40 at 14 with her cover of Joni Mitchell’s Christmas song River, and Trevor Daniel makes his UK chart debut, with Falling, rising six spots to 40.

And, yes, it’s time to get festive as a host of Christmas classics make an impact on the chart. Aside from Mariah leading the charge at 8, other festive tracks making a comeback are: Wham’s Last Christmas (13); Fairytale of New York from Pogues feat Kirsty MacColl (22); Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas (23); Shakin Stevens’ Merry Christmas Everyone (26); Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (32); Santa Tell Me, from Ariana Grande (33); and Elton John’s Step Into Christmas (39).

View the full Official Singles Chart Top 100

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Black Friday hardware bundles drive this week’s sales charts

Monday, December 2nd, 2019

Black Friday always has a big impact on the UK charts, not only with the hundreds of individual games that are discounted during the now week-long sale but because retailers and platform holders package up hardware with games to make them more tempting in the run up to the holidays. That’s the reason why Sea of Thieves, which we last saw in the charts early last year when the game first released, is once again in the UK top ten.

FIFA 20 was the biggest seller of the week, helped no doubt by the fact that it was bundled in with the PS4 at retailers up and down the country. In fact, last week’s best-seller Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was also included as part of a PS4 hardware bundle and that helped keep it in the mix, while Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the aforementioned Sea of Thieves were included as part of Xbox One hardware bundles.

Much of the top ten, however, is dominated by Nintendo, with Minecraft (which appears twice in this week’s chart) and Pokémon (which also appears twice) among the five Nintendo-published games included.

Elsewhere, recent releases such as Shenmue 3 and Football Manager 2020 were completely absent from this week’s top forty, with many gamers taking advantage of generous discounts and going back to snap up some of those titles that were missed before. Check out the top ten below:

1. FIFA 20 / EA
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare / Activision
3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order / EA
4. Sea of Thieves / Microsoft
5. Minecraft (Xbox) / Microsoft
6. Pokémon Sword/Shield (Sword) / Nintendo
7. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe / Nintendo
8. Pokémon Sword/Shield (Shield) / Nintendo
9. Luigi’s Mansion 3 / Nintendo
10. Minecraft (Switch) / Nintendo

Perhaps just as interesting as the games and their respective successes is the news that overall Black Friday sales were down 22% year-on-year (although as Games Industry notes, there was no Red Dead Redemption 2 to buoy sales this year). PlayStation gamers snapped up 500,000 physical games during the week, but that’s 37% fewer than last year, and Xbox was similarly down, with 413,112 games sold representing a 26.7% decline. On the other hand, Nintendo’s growing market share with the Switch meant a 44% bump year-on-year, with 361,967 games sold last week.

What did you pick up in the Black Friday sales this year?

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