Fifa '09 pips Call of Duty to UK Christmas No.1 2008

Jumps from third place to claim title

22 December 2008 20:20 GMT / By Verity Burns

Fifa '09 has swooped in at the last minute jumping from third position to first, to claim the coveted title of Christmas number one.

Call of Duty: World at War had held strong at the top of the All Formats chart for six weeks, and looked so set to stay there for Christmas week that Ladbrokes dropped its odds on the game being the festive favourite to 1-3.

However, retailer promotions made sales for Fifa '09 rocket 89% in a week, meaning EA claims its sixth Christmas number one in eight years.

Call of Duty: World at War had to make do with second place, while another contender for the title - Mario Kart Wii - was pushed down to third, which is still a pretty good effort for a six-month old title.

Having said that, Mario's racer was only 3000 unit sales behind pipping Call of Duty to the silver medal, as sales were up 40% on the previous week. Call of Duty sales only rose 13%.

As well as the top spot, EA also saw another of their games in the Top five, with Need for Speed Undercover in fourth thanks to a 27% sale increase this week.

Brain Training, the only game in the top ten to actually drop sales this past week, still held in with fifth place.

Two Wii sports games held up in the top flight, with Wii Play jumping a place to sixth and Wii Fit just holding in there at number ten, dropping one place.

Replacing it at number nine was Eidos' Tomb Raider: Underworld, which pushed its way up the charts thanks to a 22% sales increase.

The Gfk-ChartTrack top ten for the week ending 20 December is as follows:

1. FIFA 09
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Mario Kart Wii
4. Need For Speed Undercover
5. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training
6. Wii Play
7. Quantum of Solace
8. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
9. Tomb Raider Underworld
10. Wii Fit

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