Total War: Rome 2 would have hit No.1 if digital counted

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Digital sales don’t count when it comes to the weekly games sales charts; that No.1 spot is dictated entirely by retail. Considering the increasing levels of PC games that are purchased on systems like Steam and Origin, each year the PC charts tell a blurrier picture. It has been revealed that Rome 2 – which we gave a 7/10 in our Total War: Rome 2 review – would have hit the big No.1 spot in the UK’s chart if digital sales had been counted. 

Last week Total War: Rome 2 reached the No.2 spot in the UK retail charts, selling 32,000 units and missing the top spot by 200 copies. Trade mag MCV have discovered that bringing digital sales into the equation makes a massive difference, though. More than twice the amount of physical copies were sold digitally; 73,000 in total.

With 105,000 copies sold, that puts Rome 2 as not only the biggest game of the week, but also one of the largest release weeks for a single-format game, putting it up there with the likes of the PS3’s The Last of Us.

“It’s an incredible number and the biggest, most significant number we’ve seen,” said John Clark, Sega’s digital Vice President.

“Based on other stats that we’re looking at it also shows that this isn’t a digital shift – we’re now adding consumers,”he said, explaining that Rome 2 sold 4,000 more retail copies at launch that the first Rome game.

There were some fantastic deals being offered around the web from the likes of Steam and Green Man Gaming in the run up to Rome 2’s launch, so it’s of no surprise that digital sales were this high. It does show though that the UK sales chart means almost nothing to us on the PC platform. Looking at Steam’s ‘Top Sellers’ list is probably a far better indication of the week’s hottest new releases.