The latest Resident Evil entry has had a bittersweet debut in Japan, where it’s the best selling game of the week, but its numbers are among the lowest openings of the franchise. The game sold 187.306 copies on PlayStation 4, while the Xbox One version didn’t even enter the charts. However, the arrival of the horror game did give a nice sales boost to PS4, that continues to perform better compared to last year.
Resident Evil 7 joins other new entries from big Japanese franchises like Final Fantasy 15, which have strong debuts in the West, but they fall below expectations in their home market. RE7 topped the UK charts as well, and in that case it got one of the best debuts ever of the series, only below Resident Evil 5 and 6.
It seems normal that Resident Evil 7 doesn’t sell as well as the fifth and sixth entries, because those were more action-oriented titles with multiplayer modes that appealed to a more general audience. But in Japan, the fall from RE6 (634.933 on PS3) seems a little extreme, and it’s still far from RE5 numbers (319,000 on PS3). That said, RE7’s lower budget makes it easier to turn profitable, and Capcom sure seems happy with its numbers in the West.
It is also worth noting that Resident Evil 7’s debut is not a franchise low, since it still performed better than the original Resident Evil on PS1 (148,904) and the release of Resident Evil 4 on Gamecube (142,025).
On the hardware list, PlayStation 4 got a sales boost from the main game new entry of the week, while most of the rest of consoles had slightly lower numbers than the previous week. Xbox One actually recovered nicely from last week’s all time low, though its numbers are still merely testimonial at this point.
Software List
01. [PS4] Resident Evil 7: biohazard – 187.306 / NEW
02. [PSV] Uta no Prince-Sama: Repeat Love – 29.008 / NEW
03. [3DS] Pokemon Sun / Moon – 20.343 / 3.112.620 (-3%)
04. [3DS] Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World – 17.869 / 57.424 (-55%)
05. [PS4] Gravity Rush 2 – 15.798 / 90.159 (-79%)
06. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki – 13.017 / 642.246 (-38%)
07. [3DS] Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS – 12.150 / 941.119 (-15%)
08. [PS4] Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue – 11.243 / 171.798 (-51%)
09. [PSV] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – 9.734 / 101.844 (-39%)
10. [PS4] Valkyria Revolution – 7.411 / 45.608 (-81%)
11. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price Edition] – 6.447 / 259.321 (-14%)
12. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition – 5.808 / 1.096.016 (-15%)
13. [3DS] Momotaro Dentetsu 2017: Tachiagare Nippon!! – 5.621 / 275.348 (-35%)
14. [PSV] Valkyria Revolution – 5.121 / 23.339 (-72%)
15. [PSV] Sousei no Onmyouji – 4.681 / NEW
16. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo – 4.607 / 117.404 (-8%)
17. [PS4] Final Fantasy XV – 4.600 / 928.231 (-21%)
18. [PS4] Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – 4.342 / 52.302 (-45%)
19. [3DS] Miitopia – 4.213 / 161.160 (-12%)
20. [PSV] New Game! The Challenge Stage! – 3.662 / NEW
Hardware List
01. PlayStation 4 – 40.671
02. Nintendo 3DS – 24.707
03. PlayStation Vita – 10.553
04. Wii U – 710
05. PlayStation 3 – 579
06. Xbox One – 231
Published: Feb 1, 2017 09:42 am