After only two weeks ahead of Xbox following the launch of Mario Sunshine, GameCube sales have dropped in the UK, while Xbox enjoys a healthy surge. For the week ending October 19, GameCube clocked up a figure of 5,662 unit sales - a drop of seven percent on the previous week - whereas Xbox shifted 7,319 units over the same period - an increase of 20 percent.

The rise in Xbox sales can be accounted for by the recent cheap packages being offered by UK retailers like Argos and Dixons, but with its flagship triple-AAA Mario title only out for two weeks, the figure must be of great concern to Nintendo. With PS2 miles out in front, the race is on for the crucial second place spot in the next-gen console race and on current form Microsoft is favourite.

How Nintendo will respond to these figures remains to be seen, but the company may be compelled towards slashing the price of hardware in the run up to the crucial Christmas period in order to compete.

This brings the 2002 figures to date to 218,421 GameCube units compared with 215,818 for Xbox, with Microsoft's console well on track to having a larger installed user base than Nintendo by the end of the year. PS2 notched up sales of 23,451 last week, with GBA enjoying an increase of 14 percent at 9,730.