The first sales figures for the battle between Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band are in. The UK sales tracking group, known as Chart-Track, has announced that for the week ending September 12th, Guitar Hero 5 has locked down the number one spot, with The Beatles debuting at number four, behind Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (#2), and Batman: Arkham Asylum (#3). This marks the first time that a Guitar Hero game has opened up as the UK's top selling game. While it may come as a bit of a shock that GH5 was able to beat out The Beatles in that band's home country, it's worth taking a deeper look at those numbers.

The most glaring ommission from the report is that while Guitar Hero 5, which was released on September 1st, had a full week to get to the top spot, The Beatles: Rock Band was released on the 9th, meaning that it only had three days to try and match GH5's sales. When you consider that fact, it's actually rather impressive that The Beatles was able to get as high as number four. It's also worth pointing out that a debut in the number four spot means that The Beatles: Rock Band had the biggest first week sales in the UK for any game in that franchise, a title previously held by the original Rock Band, which debuted at number six.

So there you have it- Guitar Hero 5 has won the first week, most likely because it had a head-start on the competition. I think that the world should adopt a "wait-and-see" policy on the sales figures, so that we can compare statistics on an even playing field. Below are the full details of the top ten games in the UK for the week ending 09/12/09:

1. Guitar Hero 5 
2. Colin McRae: Dirt 2
3. Batman: Arkham Asylum
4. The Beatles: Rock Band
5. Wii Fit
6. Wii Sports Resort 
7. IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 
9. Mario Kart Wii
10. Ashes Cricket 2009

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