Capcom's survival horror series Resident Evil - also known as Biohazard in Japan - has reached a new milestone. The entire series to date has now shifted more than 100 million units worldwide.
The series first started out in 1996 on the original PlayStation and since then has grown into the biggest zombie-themed video game series of all-time. More than 80% of sales have come from outside of Japan.
This also makes it the first series in Capcom's history to reach and surpass this amount of sales. It's taken 24 years.
Perhaps the best era of Resident Evil for Nintendo fans was during the GameCube generation - when Capcom released timed-exclusives such as Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil Zero.
Nowadays, you can purchase most of the mainline Resident Evil games from the Switch eShop.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 30
That's because it's on every platform available to man and women. I think I played it on my Casio calculator watch when I was a kid. 😝
It’s a shame the new ones won’t be coming to Switch outside of that weird cloud thing, VII was brilliant and I have high hopes for VIII.
Well done Resi. Hopefully they'll come to their senses and release the re2 remake on switch sometime.
Wow you mean 7 games lots of remakes and spin offs have sold 100 mil? Clearly better than mega man.
@Spoony_Tech Don't upgrade the firmware or else you will lose that ability
It’s seriously took them this long? I’m almost surprised the games haven’t been ported to those useless “smart” fridges.
If the main character had big "assets" and looked like a character from High School of the Dead then it would see sales in Japan.
I wonder how many are from us re-buying RE4 on every system possible.
Meanwhile, GTA V alone has sold over 120 million copies.
GTA V didn't dominate the charts for 7 years by being stingy with content/quality. Perhaps other so-called "AAA" publishers/developers could learn a thing or two from their example (cough Pokémon cough).
@Silly_G
GTAV sold that much in part due to GTA Online, which is ripe with aggressive micro-transactions and even contains real-world gambling thanks to last year's casino update.
But sure, Gamefreak is the bad one...
@westman98 : Speaking for myself, GTA Online had no bearing on my decision to purchase GTA V (nor do I ever intend to dabble in it), so I cannot speculate on how it may have influenced sales, but I doubt that the majority of customers have bought GTA V primarily for the supplementary Online portion (particularly as it does seem quite predatory in its business model), which I am by no means defending, but it is also completely unsurprising that publishers resort to such practices when their audience is so willing to throw money at them for content that would typically be available within the base package at no additional cost (such as outfits and even cheat codes).
And with the way Game Freak are going, they aren't too far behind considering the market's growing indifference to in-game purchases which are fast becoming the new norm. Bad is still bad no matter how you quantify it.
@Silly_G
GTA Online is quite literally the most popular PS4 game ever in terms of overall player count and recurrent spending. There is a reason why it will be available on PS5 for free for 3 months.
Speculating about what Gamefreak "might" do is pointless goalpost-shifting.
That's because Capcom actually makes Resident Evil games. If only they invested into their other franchises more..
Look at Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Megaman etc...
@Silly_G @westman98 come on guys let’s bring this back on topic, Resident Evil being selling well for Capcom and not wether GTA Online helped boost the sales of GTA5 (which I did)
@WesEds The reason why GTA online is successful is because of the competitiveness of the community. They release vehicles like the deluxo and oppressor, and expect people to sell their warehouses in full lobbies with these try-hard toys. It's just easier for people to buy MTX then to deal with 4 or people trying to blow up your stuff for the same amount of cash as you can get from robbing a store. Basically what it is is a half finished game with no real direction, and the only reason it still successful to this day is because of these grinders/try-hards. GTA4 online was a way better game with a heck of a lot less then what GTA5 online is.
I find it very hard to believe that street fighter didn't break this milestone first.
@Spoony_Tech I just finished Resident Evil 2 on a retina device that just injects the game into my mind.
@Cool_Squirtle While I agree with your disbelief, Street Fighter is much more niche than Resident Evil, and most SF games require you to actually "git-gud," which for some people can be a turn off. If I don't play Street Fighter Alpha consistently, I get back to noob status pretty fast!
RE, on the other hand, is super easy to play and usually tells pretty gripping stories (at least the first couple did before it started getting too samey.)
@Varkster Again though, Resident Evil is the only franchise they have that triggers "mass appeal." Mega Man is niche. Okami is 100% niche. Viewtiful Joe feels rather unknown. I don't hear a lot of people mention it.
Should Capcom put more time into the things that yield less return on investment? Remember, that's how they as a corporation think of these things. We look at it and go oh man, we need another Mega Man (we don't.) and they look at it and go uh, MM10 only sold this much, let's do another Resident Evil, which sold millions more.
Not saying it's right, that's just how they look at things. Now, another Mega Man X? Yeah, we need that.
Resident Evil holds a special place in my heart so congrats to Capcom. RE4 is still possibly the greatest of its kind.
@Fido007 I agree and I hate GTA Online
....only because they re-release every title and we the suckers keep double-dipping (and in some case triple)
@nessisonett
Yeah. It's a nice milestone but we won't be seeing any new RE games on a Nintendo system anytime soon.
Well deserved with so many excellent games developed and released.
Bought resident evil 4 for the switch, man I can’t do the controls at all 😱
And 90 Million of those sales are from Resident Evil 4 ports. 😉
It likely helps that they port the franchise a lot. The more systems a game is on the more likely it will be bought. Not my cup of tea though.
I bought RE Origins collection. RE1 HD and RE Zero. Only for 9,99 on PC and on DVD. Of course steam needs to be used, but I feel bad for Switch players who had to pay at least 2x as much as I did and you got only 1 game
Remember when resident evil was exclusive for GameCube
Bought a Gamecube just for this game. Course it was only 99.99 at this point in 2005 I think.
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