Home Gaming Arkham Knight shatters Witcher 3’s First Week Sales Records

Arkham Knight shatters Witcher 3’s First Week Sales Records

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Arkham Knight week one sales records

Batman: Arkham Knight is still busy enduring the rocky launch it kicked off nearly a week ago, with PC players worldwide still struggling with countless issues thanks to a shoddy port job. It’s a real disappointment too, considering the game is actually quite stellar. Rocksteady’s swan song to the series accurately conveyed this in the massive marketing hype leading to release, and it’s showing strong in the first week of sales.

 

In fact, Arkham Knight has become the best selling week one title of 2015 in the UK, trumping The Witcher 3 with a relative amount of ease. According to UK sales monitor Chart-Track, Arkham Knight has become the fourth Warner Bros. title in the first half of 2015 to claim the No. 1 sales spot – a feat last achieved by EA in 2012.

The sales figures claim that nearly two-thirds of sales were for the PS4 version of the game – and it’s unclear how many of these are due to the rolling refunds that the game endured following the widely publicised PC woes. What the figures do not reflect, however, are digital sales of any kind. And considering the age we live in, that’s a pretty massive omission.

Still, all sales figures in the past have been tallied up in this manner, so it’s still an accurate way of comparing big budget AAA launches for the year. Warner Bros. has been kicking ass in this regard, with Dying Light, Mortal Kombat X and LEGO Jurassic Park all managing to claim top spots in UK sales charts this year already. And there’s still more to come, with the imminent launch of Mad Max looking like one of the strongest this year for the publisher.

Are you roaming the rain-soaked streets of Gotham too? Or have some of the launch issues scared you off the game for the time being? I’m quite enjoying myself in the caped crusader’s final Arkham adventure, but I do wish The Riddler hadn’t become such a big Death Race fanatic.

Last Updated: June 29, 2015

73 Comments

  1. Next year I will get the fixed and full version… Same goes for Mortal Kombat X for that matter. Don’t know if I will buy anything day one this year, got Witcher 3 day one and that is still rocking. But the rest seem to all have some issues, so I am a year-later-gamer now. Man my PC has changed me!

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Browmehn

      June 30, 2015 at 06:58

      Fallout 4 might be my other day-one purchase

      Reply

      • Mossel

        June 30, 2015 at 07:35

        And Mass Effect Andromeda!!

        Reply

        • Captain JJ Browmehn

          June 30, 2015 at 07:38

          Still need to play ME2 and ME3 myself. :/

          Reply

          • Mossel

            June 30, 2015 at 07:44

            Well it doesn’t follow the story of the first trilogy so you are good to go!
            Secondly…WTF DUDE!? I was blind last year, then I played ME2 and it shot right up to my top 3 games. Do it. You owe it to yourself.

          • Captain JJ Browmehn

            June 30, 2015 at 08:09

            Oh wow. That puts things into perspective.

          • Hammersteyn

            June 30, 2015 at 07:49

          • Rock789

            June 30, 2015 at 08:07

            o_O
            You’re dead to me!!! **turns back on JJ**

          • Captain JJ Browmehn

            June 30, 2015 at 08:09

            But I will.
            And I want to!
            I do!
            I actually have ME1 and ME2. Just don’t have enough time for it all.

          • Rock789

            June 30, 2015 at 08:12

            **half-turns back** Make it so! :p
            Yeah, they are amazing games! You are in for one helluva treat! Kinda envy you experiencing ME awesomeness for the first time.

            I really wanna play through the entire trilogy again soon… As well as Red Dead Redemption and Fallout 3. But there is just so much gaming awesomeness at the moment (Witcher 3, GTAV, Project Cars to name but a few) that time is not on my side…

          • Captain JJ Browmehn

            June 30, 2015 at 08:26

            Same here.
            Bought myself a great indie game (The Long Dark) on Steam, now I’m spending all my time on that and The Witcher 3.

          • Rock789

            June 30, 2015 at 08:36

            Nice. Sounds like an intriguing game (looked it up).

            There’s actually an indie game that came free on the PSN last month – Ether One. I would’ve bought it anyway because it reminds me heavily of Myst, which is a game I still adore to this day (own all the Myst games on Steam and have my original CD/DVD disks that I bought ages ago!) and I SO wanna get into it. But only once I can focus on it – seems like 1 of those worlds you can get lost in if you take the time to… And I love that! 🙂

          • Captain JJ Browmehn

            June 30, 2015 at 08:47

            I’ve seen Ether One on Steam. Looks pretty decent. One of those mind-screw games, which is just awesome 😀
            I can also see myself getting lost in that.

          • Admiral Chief's Adventure

            June 30, 2015 at 08:11

            As if wearing make-up is not bad enough

          • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

            June 30, 2015 at 09:20

            Just play Inquisition. It was the same story board as Mass Effect. The Reveal of your own castle was on par with the reveal of the SR2 😛

      • Hammersteyn

        June 30, 2015 at 07:48

        This as well

        Reply

      • Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

        June 30, 2015 at 07:52

        Fallout Shelter is awesome!

        Reply

        • Captain JJ Browmehn

          June 30, 2015 at 08:08

          Not a fan of mobile games, but it does look awesome.
          I use android though and it doesn’t seem like Bethesda has caught up to the fact that there are different people in the world.

          Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 30, 2015 at 07:48

      Doing the same with Batman. Just Cause and Mad Max has my wallet itching

      Reply

      • Allykhat

        June 30, 2015 at 08:19

        BUT! Mad Max is a Warner Bros game… I’d be EXTREMELY careful with that one if I were you. I have no doubt the console version will be playable but if you go PC then hold off. God forbid Mad Max gets batman syndrome though… PC port is such a hash they halt console updates to fix the broken PC port

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          June 30, 2015 at 08:26

          Shit you’re right, I forgot about Mad Max O_o

          Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        June 30, 2015 at 08:28

        I don’t know. The older I get the better I am at waiting it out it would seem. I am very relaxed with owning Fifa, Witcher 3, Destiny, Planetside 2(level 6 now) and DriveDud for now. Don’t really have time for anything else.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          June 30, 2015 at 08:34

          Same here, for at least a couple of months. Thank heavens for Planetside. Which server are you on and what faction?

          Reply

          • Allykhat

            June 30, 2015 at 08:53

            I cant remember which server im on but its the second highest populated EU server. and I fight for Vanu!

          • Admiral Chief's Adventure

            June 30, 2015 at 08:54

            SIES, VANU FILTH!

          • Allykhat

            June 30, 2015 at 08:57

            Your face is sies!

            I was going to go Terran but their guns go Bang Bang and Vanu’s go PEWPEWPEW.
            I’m more of a PEWPEWPEW man myself.

          • Admiral Chief's Adventure

            June 30, 2015 at 09:08

            I like shooting the Vanu more than I like shooting the Terrans.

            Have you read the backstory about each faction?

            Hence why I’m NC

          • Allykhat

            June 30, 2015 at 09:09

            I’ve done a little bit of reading on them but not a lot, I have a few wiki articles bookmarked, just havn’t had time to actually read them.

          • Admiral Chief's Adventure

            June 30, 2015 at 09:16

            Shoot first, read later

          • Hammersteyn

            June 30, 2015 at 09:12

            XD luckily you can create more than one character

          • Jonah Cash

            June 30, 2015 at 09:05

            I am Terran Republic on Ceres… and you?

          • Hammersteyn

            June 30, 2015 at 09:12

            Terran on Lythcorp.

          • Jonah Cash

            June 30, 2015 at 14:21

            Ok I will create a dude there as well then!!

          • Hammersteyn

            June 30, 2015 at 15:01

            XD XD XD

        • Allykhat

          June 30, 2015 at 08:52

          PANTH15
          Add me on PSN and we can jam 😀 I have PS2, Destiny and Drivedud too 😛

          Reply

          • Jonah Cash

            June 30, 2015 at 09:06

            I will do that now.

  2. Dark_Kitarist

    June 29, 2015 at 23:59

    Is anyone actually surprised? Still The Witcher deserves it more than Batman… It pisses me off that a AAA publisher gets another free ride just because…

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Browmehn

      June 30, 2015 at 06:58

      Hear hear

      Reply

    • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

      June 30, 2015 at 09:02

      The Witcher 3 sold 4million copies in two weeks. That is amazing considering nobody has read the books, played Witcher 1 and the console of choice the PS4 never even played 2. For a niche game that’s a huge success.

      As a niche gamer, I am like a Nekker in shit 🙂

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief's Adventure

        June 30, 2015 at 09:06

        Just be careful of Igni, shit has fumes, fumes and Igni do not mix. Well, they do mix, gloriously, but not to those inside the fumes

        Reply

        • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

          June 30, 2015 at 09:08

          Already suffered the consequences. I found a spurt of Aard is better than stop, drop and roll 😛

          Reply

      • Dark_Kitarist

        June 30, 2015 at 09:43

        It’s amazing and I hope they sell a lot more… But the thing WB did with Arkham Knight is appalling! And we’re giving them a free ride… We buy games like nothing happened… We give them our money! We give them our time and what do we expect in return? A game you can play normally without crashes without locked content (within the f-ing game code!!). We just want a game with a complete story that hasn’t been cut up for profit, we want a publisher that fixes it’s game and not concentrates on DLC content (I’m looking at you Batman Arkham Origins)…

        Is that to much to ask for a 69,99€ game? IS IT???

        Reply

  3. lk kara

    June 30, 2015 at 04:16

    It’s Batman….. this was obviously expected. Witcher 3 is GOTY, no one actually caes about this Batman garbage.

    Reply

  4. Captain JJ Browmehn

    June 30, 2015 at 06:57

    I like to think it’s because there are more 12 year-olds playing this than The Witcher 3

    Reply

    • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

      June 30, 2015 at 09:11

      Sad that they had to market the sex scenes for controversy and free publicity for the casuals like the Conan O Brian review. But it did work in their favor. Comming onto 6 weeks and the disc has still not left the tray. Dam time flies when you are having fun.

      How long is the Batman game?

      Reply

  5. Ranting Raptor

    June 30, 2015 at 07:10

    This annoys me. You have a game like the Witcher whos biggest gripes were SLI issues at first and small text on consoles.

    Here you have a game that’s completely stuffed on PC due to a shoddy port and it’s beating the more polished and complete game? BAH. Sheep. Sheep everywhere

    Reply

    • Captain JJ Browmehn

      June 30, 2015 at 07:24

      What you said.

      Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      June 30, 2015 at 07:47

      What Chris Pratt’s pet said

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        July 1, 2015 at 16:31

        I… But…. Wait….. no!!!

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          July 1, 2015 at 17:10

          LOL! finally, I thought you missed it

          Reply

          • Ranting Raptor

            July 1, 2015 at 19:21

            Yeah sorry. Work lappy crashed. Critical harddrive failure lol

          • Hammersteyn

            July 2, 2015 at 07:33

            Yoh, shame man.

    • Admiral Chief's Adventure

      June 30, 2015 at 07:58

      Aye dude, sad state of affairs

      Reply

    • Viking Of Science

      June 30, 2015 at 07:58

      Well Batman had a much larger marketing Budget, that would help explain higher sales on console… “‘cuz he’s da batman, and batman is coo”

      Reply

  6. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 30, 2015 at 07:53

    That’s not surprising. W3 is far more of a niche title really, Batman is Batman.

    Reply

  7. Gr8_Balls_o_KFM_Fire

    June 30, 2015 at 07:53

    There aren’t many “death races”. Most of them are rather inventive puzzles

    Reply

  8. Admiral Chief's Adventure

    June 30, 2015 at 07:58

    Pfff, Batman has Geralt pajamas

    Reply

    • Rock789

      June 30, 2015 at 08:09

      Lol! 🙂 The mental images for that are rather entertaining.

      Reply

  9. Allykhat

    June 30, 2015 at 08:30

    Seen it a bit in the comments but my 2c.

    Witcher 3 deserves the title more. Just look at the extra swag the physical copies of the game came with… at no extra cost for a “limited edition”. We got a sound track, a full size map, stickers, game booklet AND a thank you note from CDPR for supporting them and their game. Not to mention the best part… the entertainment value. I’m only around 40 hours in so far and I’ve just been doing exploring and side missions/content. The amount of hours I have left in that game are pretty crazy to say the least. I have no doubt that Batman will be an enjoyable game, but can you assure me there is 100+ hours of content in it?

    Batman launches, for the most part, buggy and/or broken. Yet it still gets accolades? I’m sorry but I bought Witcher on release day and I’m loving it so hard I’d be perfectly willing to pre-order CDPRs next game purely based on how good Witcher 3 is, as much as I hate the whole pre-order model. It’s just very saddening to see a great game, definitely a GOTY contender, overshadowed by a major published one with +- 1/4 of the content (possibly less) that’s also broken to a degree.

    Batman I shall pick up in a few month time when it’s been patched to hell and back and it goes second hand for sub R250.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief's Adventure

      June 30, 2015 at 08:43

      Your 2c is worth a lot more dude, well said

      Reply

      • Allykhat

        June 30, 2015 at 08:55

        Why thank you, Admiral 😀

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief's Adventure

          June 30, 2015 at 09:05

          xD

          Reply

      • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

        June 30, 2015 at 09:14

        You can exchange that for 1 crown 🙂

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief's Adventure

          June 30, 2015 at 09:15

          LOL I took out a ‘loan’ last night for the fun of it, got 100 coin, wanted to see what the repayment was, it was 130! So I decided to skip out on that and see who they send to ‘collect’ so that I can deal out some Aard punishment of my own

          Reply

          • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

            June 30, 2015 at 09:18

            Gerald works for Eskom?

    • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

      June 30, 2015 at 09:04

      As I said 2 months ago. Watch the new Batman game whitewash the consumer friendly direction of the W3. The casual market will always prevail. The Wii won the last gen for a reason.

      Reply

      • Allykhat

        June 30, 2015 at 09:08

        You have a very valid point

        Reply

        • oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

          June 30, 2015 at 09:13

          Expect more Redbull paid season pass DLC from now on. We vote with our wallets.

          Reply

  10. oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

    June 30, 2015 at 08:59

    Time to apply Bat oil to my blade.

    Reply

  11. oVg "I hate Portals" - Geralt

    June 30, 2015 at 09:16

    Lets see if the new casual Tomb Raider game breaks 4million sales in a year let alone the failed 5 million target across all platforms for the re-boot.

    Reply

    • Steffmeister

      June 30, 2015 at 10:02

      There aren’t that many xbox owners 😛

      Reply

  12. Witcher Bob

    June 30, 2015 at 09:18

    I can believe that since there are a lot more Batman fans than Witcher fans. We’ll give AK the first week sales record after all, they also have the first week returns record and the “delayed at least 3 months to fix our broken game” record.

    Reply

  13. Nathaniel

    June 30, 2015 at 19:31

    This is one of the best games in recent years and if there weren’t any PC issues, it would have been a remarkable launch. Witcher 3 is another great game but Batman has a much bigger following so it was clear who the winner was going to be.

    Reply

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