Watch Dogs 2 has underperformed pretty heavily in the UK sales charts, with it having sold 80% less than what was achieved by its predecessor back in 2014.
Watch Dogs 2 launched in the number two spot in the region, behind Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. While this would be disappointing in and of itself considering that the original Watch Dogs was Ubisoft’s best-selling new IP at the time of its release, the low number of copies it has shifted has also fallen well below expectations. In its first week on sale in the UK Watch Dogs 2 has sold 77,600 physical copies, compared to the 388,000 copies sold of the original Watch Dogs. This represents an 80% decline in sales for the series, and though digital sales have not been factored in to this number, it is still not hopeful news for what Ubisoft were hoping would be the next big franchise to take over the reins of Assassin’s Creed.
There are a number of factors that could have contributed to this decline in sales. Firstly, the UK economy has suffered this year as a result of the EU referendum, with the value of the pound sterling having dropped and first-week sales for games having notably struggled perhaps as a result of this historic decision. Secondly, the marketing for the game was distinctly awful — we went so far as to state that its debut trailer had “such high levels of cringe it should be deemed a criminal offence” — and the critical and consumer reception for the first game was hardly overwhelmingly positive, either.
However, by most accounts Watch Dogs 2 is quite the substantial improvement over its predecessor, meaning that it will prove to be very disappointing for Ubisoft that it’s failed to enjoy the success of the original game. A statement released by Ubisoft reads: “We’re incredibly happy with critics’ and players’ very positive reception of Watch Dogs 2, which should bolster support for the long-term success of the game,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told us. “It is true that first-day and first-week sales for a number of big games, including Watch Dogs 2 and titles from our competitors, are comparatively lower than previous versions in previous years.
“However, we expect both week-two and week-three sales to be above traditional sales patterns. There is a trend toward games, especially high-quality games, having stronger and longer ‘tails’ as favorable reviews and word of mouth spread. Watch Dogs 2 is already considered a tremendous addition to the open-world action adventure series and we’re confident that millions of players are going to love it.”
We’ve seen plenty of games this year, including Titanfall 2 and even Infinite Warfare, fail to achieve the kind of sales that were expected of them, so hopefully this unfortunate trend will end sooner rather than later.
