UK charts: Guitar Hero 5 beats Beatles

Guitar Hero 5 has become the first in the leading music series to debut at the top of the UK all-formats chart, outselling colossal rival The Beatles: Rock Band to do so.

The latter makes its own little piece of history, however, by reaching a series entry high-point of four.

Codemasters enjoys more chart success as Colin McRae: DiRT 2 turns up at two, nudging previous leader Batman: Arkham Asylum down to three. With Ashes Cricket 2009 at 10, the publisher finally has a partnership worth shouting about.

505 Games can be pleased with IL-2 Sturmovik, too, after a strong second week at seven with only a 3 per cent dip in sales.

There are more new entries further down, as Championship Manager 2010 begins its campaign at 13, Mini Ninjas pops up at 15 and Section 8 wobbles down at 22.

Champions Online, meanwhile, makes a swift exit from the top 40, disappearing to number five in the PC top 20 after two weeks on sale.

The PC release of Batman: Arkham Asylum this week may muddle the top five once more, as could the arrival of Need for Speed: Shift. Otherwise, we see little that will upset these strong frontrunners.