UK Chart Analysis: Mario Kart World Holds Off Tony Hawk, But Nintendo Switch 2 Has a Slow Week

Welcome to a new INSiGHT into the weekly UK charts, courtesy of Nielsen/GfK!

Data coming from the week ending 12th July shows that Nintendo’s Mario Kart World continues its strong run, with another week at No.1 across the Top 40 Entertainment Software chart, staving off the threat of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4, which lands at No.2 (PS5 being the lead, with 67%, Switch 2 with 11% and Switch 10%). That makes it five weeks out of six that the Switch 2 launch title has managed to beat everything else across the UK market. It’s proving to be quite the formidable monster!

It’s rather a slow week for Nintendo Switch 2 in general, though, with only Mario Kart World and Tony Hawk’s making the main Top 40 on system-specific sales alone, rather than other format sales helping titles make the cut. How is that known? Well, the No.3 game on the Switch 2 Top 20 is Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, which has an almighty leap from No.7 the previous week, but isn’t quite good enough to hit the main Top 40 on its own merit. Street Fighter 6 is down one to No.4, and that doesn’t feature in the main Top 40, either.

Using the same logic for the original Switch, MySims: Cozy Bundle at No.39 is Switch-only, and on the Switch Top 20 listing it’s at No.13, meaning anything beneath it (unless Tears of the Kingdom, with its 57% Switch share, helping the game to No.23 on the main Top 40, would have just about scraped in between MySims and Resident Evil VII (at No.40). The rest of the Switch Top 20, for reference, is: Pokémon Violet, down four to No.15, Legacy of Kain at No.16, Hello Kitty back at No.17, Pokémon Scarlet down from No.10 to No.18, It Takes Two now at No.19 and Donkey Kong Country Returns slipping one to No.20.

Over on the Switch 2 chart, this week sees Civilization VII finally break its unwanted record of propping up the table, moving out of last position and up to No.14 as Raidou Remastered takes its place, slipping beneath it to No.15 (down two spots). Sales are generally pretty static on Switch 2 elsewhere, with the exception of the two Zelda titles – Tears of the Kingdom sliding three to No.5 and Breath of the Wild down four to No.8.

Here is the Top 40 Entertainment Software for the week ending 12th July: