Kirby And The Forgotten Land tops the UK Boxed charts; earns the biggest launch in the franchise’s history

Kirby and the Forgotten Land has officially earned the biggest launch in the franchise’s history in the UK. Kirby and the Forgotten Land drifted to the top of the UK Boxed charts in its first week, serenely beating Tiny Tina’s Wonderland.

Released on March 25th, the latest entry to the 30-year old series has surpassed the past record-setter – Kirby Star Allies – by over double, stowing the number one spot in the current week’s UK charts. It’s actually quite significant, as usual, that this is simply boxed copies and does exclude digital sales.

The Nintendo Switch exclusive, which is additionally the first 3D Kirby game, is the greatest launch for the franchise in the UK of all time. It sold 2.5 times the number of copies in its first week as the past best, which was 2018’s Kirby Star Allies (likewise on Nintendo Switch). It is Kirby’s first UK No.1.

The game is drifting atop the UK physical charts as the biggest new entry (thanks gamesindustry.biz). Launch sales alone make it the fifth-greatest ever Kirby game in the UK, behind Wii title Kirby’s Adventure.

Forgotten Land launched on Friday 25th March and has already sold 2.5 times the number of copies as the past top Kirby launch, 2018’s Kirby Star Allies on Switch.

As far as general sales, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is likewise now the fifth-biggest game in the franchise, previously beating any semblance of Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, yet just falling concerning Kirby’s Adventure Wii.

As of now, the best-selling entry to the series remains Kirby’s Dream Land, which sits at 5 million copies around the world. Kirby Star Allies, in the interim, has sold just under 3 million copies as of the finish of 2020. It’s reasonable Kirby and the Forgotten Land will come to someplace in between, however, we wouldn’t run it out of in the long run taking down the original Game Boy classic.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land get Metroid Dread together with its wonderful sales achievement, the last option of which achieved its own when it was released back in October 2021. Metroid Dread performed somewhat better compared to Kirby, yet considering the agonizing wait between Metroid Fusion and its sequel, this isn’t completely surprising.

Its first-week sales alone make it the fifth-biggest Kirby game in the UK, simply behind Kirby’s Adventure Wii and in front of Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush on Wii U (data courtesy of GfK).

Significantly, Kirby is regularly perhaps Nintendo’s smallest franchise in the UK.

At No.2 is 2K Games’ new Borderlands title: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. Physical sales are low for the franchise, not in any event, managing 10% of what Borderlands 3 achieved during launch in 2019. This is a Borderlands spin-off, as was never expected to match the performance of the main series. This is likewise absolutely the physical charts information, and it’s probable digital represented most of the sales. Digital charts come in later in the week.

52% of Tiny Tina’s sales were on PS5, 25% on Xbox Series S and X, 15% on PS4, and 8% on Xbox One.

Simply missing out on the Top Ten is Ghostwire Tokyo from Bethesda at No.11. It’s one more weak launch at boxed retail, yet again digital data might change all that. The game’s UK physical launch is 80% lower than The Evil Within 2, which was the developer’s past release.

The final new game on the charts is Rune Factory 5 on Nintendo Switch. It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a completely original Rune Factory game (eight years). The past game to hit Switch was a special version of Rune Factory 4 in February 2020. Contrasted with that game, Rune Factory 5 has sold 80% more copies during its first week.

Somewhere else, Elden Ring slips one place to No.3 after a 29% fall in sales week-on-week. Gran Turismo 4 drops from No.1 to No.4 after a 48% sales slide, while Pokémon Legends: Arceus drops to No.5 after a 9% sales dip.

Big risers in the charts this week are FIFA 22, which jumps six places to No.6 after a 79% sales rise. The game had some discount activity this week, especially on Xbox One. While New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe sales rose 113%, taking the game from No.17 to No.7.

Last week’s new release, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, drops to No.19 after a 71% fall in sales week-on-week.

Kirby might be one of Nintendo’s smaller franchises, however, it’s clear this new release – the series’ first 3D game – is demonstrating famous. Our Kirby review calls it a “mouthful of magic”.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderland is second in the charts, serenely behind Kirby. Sales of the spin-off were not so much as 10% of those of Borderlands 3 from 2019, with the majority on PS5 (52%). Obviously, digital sales might be significantly stronger.

Somewhere else in the charts, PS5 and PC game Ghostwire: Tokyo launched disappointingly outside of the top 10 at number 11.

Gran Turismo 7 has dropped from one to four, Elden Ring slips from two to three, and Pokémon Legends: Arceus moves from four to five.

Further down, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins exits the top 10 to number 19 after a 71 percent fall in sales and a poor first week.

Here is the full top 10.

Keep in mind, these are physical boxed sales only.

1. Kirby and The Forgotten Land
2. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
3. Elden Ring
4. Gran Turismo 7
5. Pokémon Legends: Arceus
6. FIFA 22
7. New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe
8. WWE 2K22
9. Horizon Forbidden West
10. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe