ChampMan 4 storms to No.1

There was no surprise at the top of the UK sales charts this week, as Sports Interactive's Championship Manager 4 went straight in at number one during the busiest week for the games industry this year.

The long-awaited update to the football management franchise is thought to have had one of the biggest first-day shipments of any game in the UK, and with estimates for its first day sales running at between 125k and 150k, it's expected that next week's Chart-Track monthly report will reveal that it's taken the crown as the fastest-selling PC game of all time.

Outside of the unstoppable ChampMan juggernaut, it was a busy week for new releases across all formats, with Splinter Cell climbing back up to number two in the chart thanks to a release on PC and PS2, and Capcom's Devil May Cry 2 debuting at number three.

Nintendo's GameBoy Advance SP no doubt benefited from the launch of Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, or perhaps vice-versa - either way, the GBA remake of the classic RPG clocks in at number five this week, being the first GBA title in a very long time to achieve any kind of chart success.

Other notable new releases are Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, which arrives at number eight, and NovaLogic's Delta Force - Black Hawk Down at number nine. LucasArts' Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb fails to make the top ten, entering the charts at number 13, and Microsoft will no doubt be disappointed with the weak (some might say limp) performance of Tecmo-developed perv 'em up Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, which debuts at number 23 despite an extensive marketing campaign.

Perhaps the strangest anomaly of them all in the charts this week, however, is Championship Manager Quiz, which pops up at number four in the All-Formats chart - we can only assume that the game is being bundled along with Championship Manager 4 in some retailers, and ironically this is by far the highest chart position it has ever achieved.