Call of Duty: World at War, the World War II new installment in the long running franchise, debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, barely edging out Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion for the Blizzard made World of Warcraft MMO.

The Xbox 360 version of World at War is at number one in the charts and has also become the third fastest selling videogame in the UK, being only beaten to number one by Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA: San Andreas. The overall sales of World at War are more than double those registered by Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare when it launched last year, which is a big success for developer Treyarch, accused of delivering half ready products in the past.

Blizzard has showed that PC gaming is not dead by selling a lot of Wrath of the Lich King units and also made Activision Blizzard the dominant publisher in the United Kingdom this week, as the Activision published PlayStation 3 version of the new Call of Duty sits at number 3.

The SEGA published Football Manager 2009 has become the fastest selling title in a series which began with Championship Manager as it reached number 4, while Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 has dropped four places to number 5, failing to retain the momentum of the launch week.

Games for Nintendo's platforms, like the Wii and the DS, occupy the rest of the top ten, with Mario Kart Wii selling better than Wii Fit. Wii Music has debuted just outside the top ten, at number 11.

Xbox 360 titles are dominating the top 40, with 12 titles, while the Nintendo Wii has nine and the PlayStation 3 has eight titles in the chart.