Death Stranding is the Second Biggest New IP Launch of the Year in the UK

Last Friday the hotly anticipated new game from Metal Gear creator Death Stranding finally released, and it’s the second biggest release for a new IP in the UK during 2019, behind the PlayStation 4 exclusive Days Gone.

To be precise, Death Stranding sold 36% less units than Days Gone during launch. That’s quite a large margin considering director Hideo Kojima’s legacy and the huge marketing push around the game. This difference in sales may be related to the release timing however, with Days Gone launching in the comparatively more quiet month of April, and Death Stranding having to go toe-to-toe with some of the biggest annual releases.

One of these releases is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is unsurprisingly still sitting at the number one spot on the charts, with Death Stranding debuting at number two. Death Stranding’s release has meant that Luigi’s Mansion 3 has slipped to the number four position, with Fifa 20 sitting tightly at the number three spot.

Need for Speed: Heat, Fortnite: Darkfire Bundle and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games 2020 are all new entries into the top 10, landing at number five, number seven and number eight respectively. Meanwhile, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe, Minecraft and Plant vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville are occupying the six, nine and ten slots.

Death Stranding is available now exclusively for PlayStation 4, with a PC release coming during the Summer of 2020.