UK Chart Analysis: EA Sports FC 26 and Mario Kart World Topple Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

The latest UK charts from NielsenIQ and GfK Entertainment for the week ending 22nd November, 2025 show EA Sports FC 26 climbing to the top spot, driven largely by PS5 sales, while Mario Kart World continues its strong run on Switch 2 in second place. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, last week’s leader, slips to third but remains heavily weighted toward PlayStation, with Battlefield 6 holding steady in fourth and Pokémon Legends: Z‑A balancing sales across Switch and Switch 2 to round out the top five.

The week also saw notable movement further down the rankings, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 surging from No.35 to seventh and Astro Bot rising to No.11, while Sonic Racing: Crossworlds and NBA 2K26 also made significant climbs. New entries added fresh energy to the chart, with Kirby Air Riders debuting at No.12 (despite heavy promotion but also likely due to big increases thanks to early sales kicking in ahead of Black Friday), Hades II arriving at No.21 exclusive to Switch 2 at retail, Cricket 26: Official Game of the Ashes entering at No.32, and Gabby’s Dollhouse: Ready to Party landing at No.40 thanks mainly to its Switch sales. Re‑entries from titles such as Marvel’s Spider‑Man 2, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition, Gran Turismo 7 and Elden Ring highlight the resilience of established catalogue favourites, especially in the run-up to Black Friday and Christmas.

Overall, the chart reflects PS5’s dominance across multi‑platform releases, the growing strength of Switch 2 exclusives, and a healthy mix of new launches and returning hits keeping the market dynamic.

Dorian Bloch, Senior Client Insight Director at NielsenIQ, has kindly provided some insight into the performance of Kirby Air Riders’ first week:

“Kirby has never been a massive franchise in the UK. It comes in at No.212 in terms of all-time boxed software revenue brands (revenue up to 2024). The best Kirby W1, or all-time sales, came from the Switch release of Kirby and the Forgotten Land (W12/2022) – that title was the 18th biggest in 2022, widely praised and the first full 3D title in the main series. This title is the standout across the entire Kirby series. For reference, in terms of top-selling franchises in UK ‘Mario’ (any Mario title is included here) is No.3, ‘Pokémon’ is No.7, ‘Zelda’ is No.23, ‘Animal Crossing’ is No.47, ‘Dr. Kawashima’ at No.54. Kirby Air Ride on GameCube (debut W9/2004) launched around two years after the GameCube console, but by that time interest in GameCube was waning, and it did not perform well at launch. Kirby Air Riders on Switch 2 last week has already outsold the original Kirby Air Ride release. Obviously this is all based on boxed software, and I do not have the W1 digital direct sales of Kirby Air Riders on Switch 2, so it is possible that it actually performed a lot better. In comparison with DK Bananza or Pokémon Legends Z-A, then Kirby Air Riders is nowhere near what these two did over W1 as boxed releases. It is also nowhere near Kirby Forgotten Land on Switch. But compared to Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World on Switch 2 (W35/2025, original Switch version W12/2022, as mentioned above) then Kirby Air Riders on Switch 2 is more than double the Switch 2 re-issue launch of Forgotten Land W1.”

Be sure to check out the full Top 40 Entertainment Software list below: