UK chart: Tomb Raider biggest launch of the year so far
Doubles sales of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Tomb Raider is the UK's biggest launch of the year so far.
The reboot is in top spot, and, according to UK sales company Chart-Track, "comfortably" outsold 2013's previous best, Sega's Aliens: Colonial Marines, by more than double the week one sell-through.
In fact, this new Tomb Raider set a new record for the franchise in the UK. The previous best was Crystal Dynamics' first game in the series, Tomb Raider: Legend, which in 2006 sold around half what the new Tomb Raider sold.
It should be noted though, that Tomb Raider (2013) is the first in the series to launch as an "event title", that is, on Tuesday 5th March, and so had six days of sales to count towards its launch total. But, countering this, PC download sales are not included in Chart-Track's data, so sales from Steam, for example, aren't counted.
More records: the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Tomb Raider set new week one records as the fastest-selling individual formats of any Tomb Raider release so far. The previous record was held by Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, which released on PS2 in 2003.
EA's SimCity enters the chart in second place. Again, it should be noted that PC sales through EA's digital platform Origin are not counted by Chart-Track.
Elsewhere, Namco Bandai's Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 is a new entry at three, and EA The Sims 3: University Life, the ninth (!) expansion pack for The Sims 3, is new at four.
FIFA 13 is fifth and last week's number one, EA's Crysis 3, is down to sixth.