The Last Of Us Is The Highest Selling New Intellectual Property Since 2011

After garnering seemingly unanimous praise when the critical embargo lifted last week, The Last Of Us finally hit retail on Friday, June 14th and smashed a few records along its journey to the No.1 spot. Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic action adventure game claimed number one on the UK gaming chart and was the largest launch for a novel franchise since Rockstar’s L.A. Noire in 2011.

Here’s the weekly UK chart in full, courtesy of Chart-Track:

1. The Last of Us
2. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
3. Grid 2
4. Tomb Raider
5. FIFA 13
6. Injustice: Gods Among Us
7. Far Cry 3
8. Skyrim: Legendary
9. Luigi’s Mansion 2
10. Assassin’s Creed 3

In terms of sales figures for 2013, The Last Of Us ranked third behind Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite, respectively, and represents a remarkable and deserved achievement for Naughty Dog as a studio. The accolade is compounded when you consider that the above statistic represents the entire five days of sales which the game surpassed with just one day on the market as a Playstation exclusive.

Charting the tale of Joel and his teenage accomplice Ellie, The Last Of Us takes place in a world ravaged by a deadly disease known as the Cordyceps fungus, which, post-infection, causes humans to mutate into fiendish ‘Runners’ and blind-yet-deadly ‘Clickers.’ This leaves the remaining human populace to duke it out for resource supremacy as the game places an emphasis on rationing supplies and ammunition in order to survive.

Tense, gripping and staggeringly beautiful are just some of the superlatives heralded at The Last Of Us, and the above figures – which amassed to five times that of the original Uncharted in 2007 – convey a ringing endorsement from the gaming community.

Did you pick up The Last Of Us over the weekend? If so, give us your impressions of the game below and be sure to check out our review on the site as well.