sisslethecat
Despite a relatively sluggish start (3.5 Million units over the first three months or so), Resident Evil 7: Biohazard began to pick up speed with each passing year, with each new accolade being a surprise — and now it’s achieved a really amazing first for the series. In just shy of five years, Resident Evil 7 has now sold a whopping 10 million units, which breaks several Capcom records all at once. First of all, this is the first title in the series to have hit 10 million all on its own, without the need for ports. Resident Evil 5 is still the highest selling game in the series (12.1 million total at the moment), but that’s only thanks to having been ported and re-released multiple times. Resident Evil 7 is primed to blow past those numbers if Capcom chooses to release a current-gen port of it, which is jaw-dropping.
Another major boon for Resident Evil 7 is that it has now smashed through Capcom’s expected lifetime sales of the title. Back in 2017, Capcom commented that it expected the title to move around 10 million units total, which would include ports and re-releases. The Baker’s Family Vacation blew that expectation out of the water, zipping past that “lifetime” goal in less than 5 years. To put that in perspective, Resident Evil 5‘s 12.1 million is based on its lifetime sales, going all the way back to its original 2009 release, through to its latest port on Switch. That’s only a million a year, while RE7 is just shy of that figure in less than half the time.
RE7 remains seated at the number 2 spot on Capcom’s Platinum Hits page, second only to Monster Hunter World (which is basically uncatchable now, with a staggering 17.3 million units sold), but Resident Evil 2 Remake is catching up quick. REmake 2‘s 8.6 million (at the time of writing, Capcom hasn’t updated that number since June) is primed to catch up and maybe even pass RE7 within the next year or two, which is even more shocking considering its only coming up on its third anniversary.
It’s a wonderful time to be a fan of the horror side of Resident Evil, as its return has experienced an incredible explosion of support (both critically and financially), and I can’t wait to see what the series has in store for us next.
