Games Toaster: PlayStation rules Irish Xmas charts

With the PlayStation 3 launch delayed, pre-Christmas headlines read “Sony runs Christmas”, but PlayStation brands accounted for the vast majority of computer games under Christmas trees in Ireland, writes Cian Ginty.

In the Irish multi-format games charts Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable secured over 70% of total sales of the games in the top 10 Christmas chart, and 80% of the top five titles.

The Christmas top are Need for Speed: Carbon (EA), Fifa 07 (EA), Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Konami), WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 (THQ), and Call of Duty 3 (Activision).

Nintendo consoles combined – mainly handhelds – followed with 17% of the top 10. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console only managed to take 6.9%, with a mere 0.3% extra from the original Xbox.

These percentages – not normally published – are sent out by ChartTrack on their weekly chart reports. The charts show the most popular games according data collected at retail points on the highstreet and on websites including CDWow.com and Play.com.

The multi-format chart includes percentage breakdowns of how much was sold on different games systems.

Popular exclusive games are extremely important in the console wars. Reflecting their strength in the Irish games market, Sony has five of these exclusives in the top 20.

Nintendo also beats Microsoft in this arena, with two better-placed exclusives that have survived on the charts for about 25 weeks. This is compared with the sole Xbox 360 exclusive, the premier Christmas title ‘Gears of War’ at 18th place and only on the charts for six weeks.

Last Christmas we reported that the Xbox brands rarely received much more then 10% of sales of any individual games released on multiple systems, and never above 20%. This has improved this year, but only slightly. There was only one title that the 360 receive more then 15% of sales, it was Call of Duty 3 at 32%.

The total breakdown of Xbox 360 sales are as follows (1) Need for Speed: Carbon with 7%, (2) FIFA 07 with 6%, (2) Pro Evolution Soccer 6 with 13% (4) WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 with 11%, (5) Call of Duty 3 with 32%, (17) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 with 15%, (18) Gears of War with 100, and (20) Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy with 4%.

With a massive install base, and the launch of the PlayStation 3 in March, Ireland’s love affair with the PlayStation brand shows few signs of changing.

ChartTrack's Irish charts for Christmas week 2006 is currently shown to the left. Also see the Games Toaster story on last year’s Christmas Irish games chart and a comprehensive report on the charts from week one 2006 to the week ending July 15.