GTA IV smashes UK retail records

Wii Fit may currently top of the sales charts in the UK, but figures released by British sales-tracking body Chart-Track indicate that its reign will soon be over. Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV, which launched on 29 April to widespread critical acclaim, has set new records for UK sales in its first 24 hours of release.

Analysts had stated that GTA IV was destined to be 'huge' and that's proving to be the case, in the UK at least. Figures from Chart-Track for the first day of the game's UK release, which are based on point-of-sale data and retailer estimates, show that approximately 609,000 copies were sold for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 combined. This beats the previous record for day-one sales, which was set by Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004 with 501,000 PlayStation 2 units sold.

GTA IV also broke system-specific sales records for software on the Xbox 360 and PS3. Fifty-five per cent of the copies sold were destined for Microsoft's console, with 335,000 units shifted in the first 24 hours. This beat the previous record of 266,000 copies, which was set by Halo 3 on 26 September 2007.

The PlayStation 3's previous fastest-selling game in the UK was Sony's Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which sold 80,000 units during its first day of sales in March this year. GTA IV has 'well and truly eclipsed' these figures, according to Chart-Track's director Dorian Bloch, with an estimated 274,000 copies sold in 24 hours.

Chart-Track says that it will continue to analyse the figures after the public holiday in the UK on Monday, 5 May. Bloch told CNET.co.uk's sister site GameSpot, "Unless there is a real problem, and the lorries can't deliver the product, the first-week sales record is set to be trashed." The record for units sold in the first week is currently held by GTA: San Andreas, with 677,000 copies.