The Charts: GTA IV Fit to Take the Top?

OK, deep breath everyone, this is going to come as a massive un-shock. Grand Theft Auto IV is Number 1 in the Charts.

In fact, it's so Number 1 that it outsold the nearest contender, Wii Fit, by over nine to one according to Chart-Track. Rockstar's blockbuster has nearly hit the one million sales mark in five days, shifting 926,000 units and generating £39.9m in revenue. It turns out that the game also beat Chart-Track's day one sales estimate of 609,000, racking up 631,000 in its first 24 hours.

Care for some more GTA IV stats? Yes? Good. Because you're going to get them. The game accounts for a whopping 61.2% of all entertainment software sales for last week – that chunk alone adds up to more than any other week's sales in 2008 so far. In under a week, GTA IV has also sold more copies than every other title in 2007, barring FIFA 08, Call of Duty 4 and Brain Training. There was one notable omission in that list to SPOnG's eyes. So shocked were we to not see Halo 3 in there that we called Chart-Track to double check that GTA IV had out-performed Bungie's shooter in such a way. “Yes, it did”, a Chart-Track rep told us. “It outsold Halo 3 for all of 2007.”

Anyway, there are another 39 titles in the Top 40 – let's take a quick look. Wii Fit suffered from low stock, dropping 58% of its sales and finding itself at Number 2. SEGA's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games remains steady, staying at Number 3. Wii Play enjoys strong supply and climbs from Number 15 to Number 4.

Mario Kart Wii drops from Number 2 to Number 5 but remains ahead of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which drops two places to Number 6.

SEGA is the only publisher to dare to release a new title in the same week as GTA IV. It put out Iron Man, which flew in at Number 11.

Next week... publishers are still shying away from new releases. Keep an eye out for Dragon Quest Swords on the Wii from Square Enix, though.

You can see the Top 10 below (last week's position is bracketed) and catch the Charts in full here.

(NE) 1 Grand Theft Auto IV - Rockstar
(1) 2 Wii Fit - Nintendo
(3) 3 Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games - SEGA
(15) 4 Wii Play - Nintendo
(2) 5 Mario Kart Wii - Nintendo
(4) 6 Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - SCEE
(5) 7 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 - Konami
(6) 8 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Activision
(8) 9 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? - Nintendo
(10) 10 Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 - Ubisoft