UK Chart: Resident Evil 5 takes aim at number one

Capcom's biggest-ever first-week sales take Resi 5 to the top of the UK all-formats chart, knocking Empire: Total War down to seven.

In what is traditionally one of the quietest periods of the year for the video game industry, Capcom has enjoyed a stellar couple of months. After storming into the UK all-formats chart in February with Street Fighter IV, the Japanese publisher has managed to score its second number one in as many months with Resident Evil 5.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game was expected to do well, but Resident Evil 5's success has eclipsed that of its predeccessors. Chart-Track reports that the game's UK sales number more than every other game in the top 10 combined. Not only that, but the game's first-week sales are the largest since Call of Duty: World at War's second week in November 2008, and it actually managed to eclipse FIFA 09's Christmas-week sales from December. The fifth game in the series is the first time that Resident Evil has appeared on a Microsoft console, and Chart-Track reports that the Xbox 360 accounts for 55% of all sales of the game.

Resident Evil 5's gain is the rest of the chart's loss, though, given that most of the other games in the top 10 lose places this week. Last week's number one, Empire: Total War, dropped to number seven after losing 70% of sales, whereas Killzone 2 lost 53% of sales and dropped from three to number five. Wii Fit and Tom Clancy's HAWX bucked the trend by both moving up one place to numbers two and three respectively, although both games also lost sales, 14% and 19% down respectively.

Resident Evil 5's dominance will be challenged next week thanks to a couple of high-profile handheld games. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars marks Rockstar's debut on the Nintendo DS, and Resistance: Retribution makes its way to the PSP on Friday.