We’re told that this week’s chart-topper, which only released at the end of the week, is the biggest launch of such a franchise ever, outselling last year’s iteration by 37.5%, releasing on all formats. What game is this? Fifa ’09, of course! The hulking giant of the sports game genre has inevitably reached the No. 1 spot in the UK Charts, finally shifting Star Wars: The Force Unleashed down to the No. 2 spot.

What’s interesting about the Fifa ’09 launch is that 40% of sales were recorded on the Xbox 360 which puts it at the third-fastest selling game on the console, behind the likes of GTA IV and Halo 3. 40% of the sales were also recorded on the PS3, making it that console’s second fastest selling game, behind GTA IV. 3% of sales were attributed to the PSP, 11% of the total were sold on the PS2, while the Nintendo platforms and the PC accounted for the rest.

This means, of course, that there was some downward movement for the rest of the Top Ten, but some games did manage to hike just a bit higher than last week.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, for example, managed to climb to the coveted No. 3 spot from 4 last week. Big Beach Sports was also able to muscle past and settle at No. 8, up from 9. Everybody else, though, shifted down, so the chart looks more or less the same as last week. Of note was the shifting of Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii down two places, with Wii Fit moving from No. 2 to No. 4 and Mario Kart moving from No. 3 to No. 5. Scandalous!

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 felt the push, moving from No. 5 to No. 6 and another Nintendo title, Wii Play, moved down one place from No. 6 to No. 7. Pure essentially swapped placed with Big Beach Sports by shifting down from No. 8 to No. 9, while Carnival: Funfair Games hangs onto the No. 10 spot, down from No. 7.

The rest of the chart didn’t have much significant movement, except for a few notables. Guitar Hero III was forcibly removed from the Top Ten, just edging down to No.11, Spore is down to No. 23 from No. 14 last week, Halo 3, probably on the back of its announcements, was up from No. 30 to No. 24. Super Smash Bros. Brawl climbed a mighty long way to No. 26 from No. 37 and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, fell a mighty long way down to No. 32 from No. 13 last week.

All Formats Top 10

• Fifa 09 (EA)
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts)
• Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (Ubisoft)
• Wii Fit (Nintendo)
• Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (EA)
• Wii Play (Nintendo)
• Big Beach Sports (THQ)
• Pure (Disney Interactive)
• Carnival: Funfair Games (2K)