FIFA Ousts Gears Of War From Top Of UK Charts

There have been no new entries in the UK top ten this week, but considerable movement, as soccer simulation FIFA 07 moves up three places to reclaim the number one spot. The PlayStation 2 version is now outselling Pro Evolution Soccer 6 on PlayStation 2 by a factor of 3:2, while the Xbox 360 version of Konami's title is outselling its FIFA 07 equivalent by the same ratio.

Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War was the most obvious victim in the shuffle of positions, with sales down by 45 percent on its debut week – although it remains the only single format exclusive in the top ten.

Meanwhile, the newly released PlayStation 2 version of Call of Duty 3 kept the game afloat in the top ten for Activision, while the new Xbox 360 version of movie tie-in Cars did the same for THQ. Girl's toy license Bratz: Forever Diamondz proved to have the best week in the top ten though, with sales up by 45 percent – led by the Nintendo DS version which accounted for 80 percent of all sales for the title.

Outside of the top ten, Nintendogs: Labrador & Friends re-entered as high as number thirteen, making for five Nintendo published titles in the top twenty. The highest new entry though was PlayStation 2 exclusive Guitar Hero II at number sixteen, which sold almost three times more than during its predecessor's debut. Home console movie tie-in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow re-entered at number twenty-three, boosted by sales of the DVD release of the movie.

There was no place however for other Christmas titles such as Warhammer: Mark of Chaos from Namco Bandai/Deep Silver, Cricket 07 from Electronic Arts, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Party Edition from Eidos, Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega or movie tie-in Happy Feet from Midway. Many of these titles stand a good chance of charting in the top forty next week, although others will no doubt be lost in the traditional Christmas rush of new titles.