Sims holds on to No.1 slot
Is there no stopping this franchise?
The Sims was again the nation's best selling game, as EA continued to utterly dominate the ChartTrack Top 40.
Midway has replicated its US success with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, which moved up to No.2, displacing C&C Generals, which now occupies the No.3 slot. Elsewhere, the big Christmas releases continued to occupy the upper reaches of the chart, with The Getaway holding firm at No.4, Vice City at No.5, and FIFA 2003 at No.6.
Codemasters registered the highest new entry, with IGI2: Covert Strike [a PC FPS so stealthy it didn't even make it into this sentence the first time round - Tom] entering at No.16. There were two other new entries this week; Wanadoo's Dark Age Of Camelot: Shrouded Isles at No.28. and Namco's Dead To Rights, at No.34. This week's highest climber was Disney's Treasure Planet - storming up to No.18 after a quiet start.
On a format basis, the PS2 is still crushing the competition, and Sony's latest promotion has stirred several of its first party titles back to life, notably WRC II at No.30, and Ratchet & Clank at No.37.
The Xbox still has only one exclusive title in the charts - Dead To Rights - although this will only be exclusive to the format for a limited period. The GameCube appears to be still struggling, with not one exclusive title in even the Full Price Top 40.
Even Rayman 3 - exclusive to Nintendo platforms for three weeks - was nowhere near the chart, making a disappointing debut at No.5 in the GameCube chart, and a disastrous No.17 in the GBA chart. Honestly, it's very good.
Check out the full listings at www.chart-track.co.uk.