Shenmue 3 was one of the most highly anticipated games of the year before its launch last week. It was the best-funded videogame Kickstarter campaign ever and went on to receive a generally positive fan reception at launch. However, the long-awaited game has struggled to make much of a dent in the UK physical sales charts, coming in at No. 17 in its debut week.

Perhaps it is an unsurprising result, given the Shenmue series’ status as a cult hit rather than being a game with mainstream, blockbuster appeal. What is surprising, however, is that a game that came out on PC and PS4 was beaten by the PC-exclusive Football Manager 2020, which debuted at No. 16.

Obviously, releasing on two platforms rather than one is itself an advantage, but there’s more to it than that. Only physical sales count towards UKIE’s charts – so what the charts actually tell us is that more people bought a boxed copy of Football Manager 2020 than a boxed copy of Shenmue 3, even though the latter came out on PC and PS4, where a greater proportion of players buy physical.