NPD analyst Matt Piscatella has hinted at sales of Square Enix’s action role-playing game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, having underperformed in the US.
Matt Piscatella, the executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana (NPD), took to Twitter/X (via) to share that he is preparing to offer an update on sales of the new title in the major RPG franchise on Wednesday, suggesting that he was referring to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. However, his post was accompanied by the “Ralph I’m in danger” meme from The Simpsons, further suggesting that the game has underperformed in the US.
Piscatella isn’t the first analyst to have hinting at disappointing sales figures for the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Recently, Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, also shared that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth had been underperforming. He added that the game is selling about half of what Final Fantasy VII Remake sold in the same time frame, and, according to him, it’ll likely have a weaker tail. He mentioned that his information came from Equities research reports, which gets its data from the usual trackers.
The sales update from both analysts is surely a letdown for Final Fantasy VII fans, and it raises concerns about the series’ future. It’s unexpected considering the game received positive reviews from the gaming media. Currently, it holds a score of 92 on Metacritic, the highest for a single-player Final Fantasy game in nearly twenty years.
Meanwhile, according to a recent sales update from Famitsu, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has sold a total of 4,840 physical copies in its 5th week since release in Japan. This brought the game’s total sales to 310,596 copies, making it the third best selling PS5 game in the country to date, with only Final Fantasy XVI, with sales of around 429,000 copies, and Gran Turismo 7, with sales of around 348,000 copies, being ahead of it.
