Destiny 2 has the best UK physical launch sales of 2017 so far - but also sells less than half of its predecessor
Destiny 2's sales point to a continuing and strengthening trend around physical game sales in general.
We're all very busily shooting away and compiling our Destiny 2 guide, but there's time to stop and smell the roses - or rather, to peruse the week one physical sales figures for Destiny 2 in the UK.
It looks like it's the biggest-selling week one launch of any game so far this year. On the flip side these numbers are significantly less than the original Destiny, with the sequel selling less than half that which its predecessor did at retail.
Figures leaked to NeoGAF by a previously reliable UK chart source peg the game as selling 175,000 physical copies during its first week. The original Destiny sold 417,000.
There are a few causes for this, most likely. For one, the original Destiny launched one day earlier in the week giving it an extra day of sales, but more important is that in the three years between Destiny and its sequel there's been a significant and continuing shift towards digital sales, especially for games with an online focus like Destiny.
It certainly seems like Bungie won't be worried - over the weekend, they announced that Destiny 2 had a whopping 1.2 million players concurrently. That's a lot of people, especially considering the PC version of the game hasn't even launched yet. It seems to be on track to shift the 4 million units analysts predicted it would in its first three months.
In the UK charts, PS4 made up 58 percent of physical sales while Xbox One made up the remaining 42 percent. The PC version launches next month.
Elsewhere in the chart console exclusives Uncharted: The Lost Legacy and Forza Horizon 3 hold at second and third. The Crash Bandicoot Trilogy is at sixth, the relatively new F1 2017 is seventh and Mario & Rabbids is tenth. The other games on the top ten are old third party evergreen staples like GTA5. New releases Knack and Monster Hunter Stories charted at twelfth and twenty-first respectively.