The recent sales figures for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in Japan, the most critically acclaimed title in the Final Fantasy series in nearly two decades, show a worrisome trend for the franchise’s future.
The remake trilogy for what is arguably the most popular entry in the Final Fantasy franchise was expected to give the franchise a much needed boost in sales, but this does not appear to be the case, with the franchise seeing a steady decline in sales with every new release.
As seen in the list above (via), the Final Fantasy franchise has seen a considerable decline in sales in Japan that began from the PS4 era. Up until the release of Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3, each prior entry in the series from Final Fantasy VI onward was able to comfortably sell over 1 million copies in its first week of release. Things changed, however, with the arrival of Final Fantasy XV in 2016, which sold 716,649 copies in its first week on PS4. It was followed by Final Fantasy VII Remake, a re-imagined version of the most popular entry in the series. But even that wasn’t enough to bring the series back to its glory days, as the game sold 702,853 copies in its first week in Japan, which is even less than Final Fantasy XV’s first week sales in the country.
2023 saw the release of Final Fantasy XVI, 7 years after the prior numbered entry, Final Fantasy XV. The large gap between both releases didn’t seem to have a positive effect on the first week sales of Final Fantasy XVI, however, which were significantly lower than those of Final Fantasy XV. The PS5 exclusive only managed to sell 336,027 copies in week 1. This worrisome trend has only continued with the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the most critically acclaimed title in the series in nearly two decade, as the game only managed to sell 262,656 copies in its first week of release in Japan.
While critics praise the latest entry for delivering the finest Final Fantasy role-playing game experience in years, the local gaming community in Japan remains uninterested at large. The reasons behind this downfall likely has to do with changing trends in the Japanese game market, the lack of availability of new Final Fantasy titles on other popular platforms such as the Nintendo Switch, and the declining interest in PlayStation hardware in Japan. Positive word of mouth may turn things around for sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in the weeks to come, but early signs from Japan aren’t promising.
The Final Fantasy franchise saw notable success in Japan with the release of Final Fantasy VI on Super Famicom, which achieved lifetime sales of 2.55 million copies. Final Fantasy VII surpassed this with lifetime sales of 3.27 million copies, and Final Fantasy VIII went further with sales of 3.5 million copies. The latter is the best selling title in the country franchise history. Final Fantasy IX, X, XII, and XIII continued the trend of achieving sales of over 1 million copies in their first week of release in Japan.
