Of all the games coming out in 2019, surely Days Gone was one of the most highly anticipated of the lot. After all, gamers had been waiting a mighty long time for this PS4 exclusive, which had been teased for years before finally hitting shelves on April 26.
And even though Days Gone has not been as warmly received by the critics as some might have expected (its current Metacritic score of 72 is decent, but not spectacular for a major AAA release), it seems developer Bend Studio’s game has had a very strong debut at retail.
Actually, Days Gone has topped the UK charts for the week ending on April 27 as was recently reported on gamesindustry.biz, making it one of the biggest PS4 exclusives to see a release in recent years. Its sales though, were below those of last year’s megahit God of War, but are still impressive nonetheless taking into account that Days Gone is a new IP, while God of War is an established franchise which has sold millions to date.
Coming in second place is Mortal Kombat 11, another strong debut for a Mortal Kombat game after its predecessor Mortal Kombat X did similarly well in the charts. This did not sell quite as well at retail as X though, but as GamesIndustry points out this may have to do with the fact that digital sales are a larger portion of total sales these days, and that the GfK chart does not take digital into account.
Aside from Days Gone and the latest Mortal Kombat game, the other games in the top 5 include FIFA 19, Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Division 2. The FIFA series has always been a top seller so its presence in the chart is anything but a surprise, while Rockstar’s megahit Red Dead Redemption 2 even managed to climb one place relative to last week’s chart. And Ubisoft’s The Division 2’s popularity is nothing strange either, being a sequel to one of the biggest games which came out in 2016.
Going back to Days Gone, though, it remains to be seen whether this PS4 exclusive can maintain its place in the best-selling games charts this year, but so far this is an impressive performance by a game which might very well get a sequel if it keeps selling well throughout 2019.