It’s pure that everybody’s been a little bit antsy about Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth recently. For weeks, analysts and followers have been (*2*) in comparison with its predecessor, Remake, amid worries this would possibly affect the way forward for the 7 Remake trilogy. Right this moment, we received a little bit extra knowledge on what’s actually happening right here – although the jury continues to be out on how writer Sq. Enix is trying on the numbers.
Right this moment, Circana printed its month-to-month online game shopper spending report for March, which provides perception on the U.S. market calculated by greenback gross sales. One of many extra notable video games within the rankings this month was Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which reviews have steered is not promoting in addition to Sq. Enix would really like regardless of vital acclaim. With out precise gross sales figures, it is troublesome to inform, and our evaluation a couple of weeks in the past indicated that it is doing….eh, effective, simply not gangbusters.
Right this moment’s Circana report paints a equally perplexing image. Rebirth continues to be the fourth best-selling sport this yr up to now, but it is also the 14th best-selling Final Fantasy sport ever – nicely behind Final Fantasy 15 in first place, Final Fantasy 7: Remake in second, and the unique Final Fantasy 7 in third place. Granted, it is solely had two months in the marketplace on a single platform whereas the others have had a number of years on a number of platforms, so we may give it some grace there.
We requested Circana analyst Mat Piscatella for a bit extra context on what is going on on with Rebirth’s U.S. gross sales. He instructed us that Rebirth gross sales within the U.S. are down a double-digit proportion when in comparison with each Remake and Final Fantasy 16 over the identical time in market – in order that’s not nice. But he additionally famous, once more, that Remake launched “at mainly one of the best time to launch a online game in historical past, and on a special put in base, with all that constructed up anticipation.” And he known as the sport’s efficiency “not superb, but additionally nowhere close to horrible.” Which is roughly what different specialists have described to us earlier than, and what U.Okay. gross sales numbers appear to counsel as nicely.
Nonetheless, it is unimaginable to say whether or not “not horrible” shall be sufficient for Sq. Enix. The writer has introduced it is getting ready to take a $140 million hit in “content material abandonment losses” resulting from canceled video games within the final fiscal yr, and it stays unclear how a lot of this may affect Final Fantasy 7’s remake trilogy, if it should in any respect. And it is admittedly a little bit jarring to see Rebirth in gentle of Circana’s reported gross sales for fellow motion RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2, which pulled 11x the quantity of greenback gross sales the unique Dragon’s Dogma did, and has already surpassed the mixed life-to-date gross sales of each Dragon’s Dogma and Dragon’s Dogma: Darkish Arisen mixed. It’s solely been out for a month, and it is the second-best-selling sport of the yr within the US. That is a fairly stark distinction…but once more, Dragon’s Dogma 2 launched throughout three platforms: PC, Xbox, and PS5. Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth is PS5 unique.
As for the remainder of the month in video video games, Helldivers 2 continues to be the best-selling sport of the yr up to now and is the seventh best-selling Sony-published sport of all time, after simply two months. Dragon’s Dogma 2 was the best-selling sport of March, followe dby Helldivers 2, MLB The Present 24, Name of Responsibility: Fashionable Warfare 2, and Rise of the Ronin so as. Princess Peach: Showtime! debuted at No.6 (digital gross sales excluded as regular), Unicorn Overlord debuted at No.8, and WWE 2K24 debuted at No.9 (digital gross sales excluded). Additionally notably, Horizon 2: Forbidden West noticed a large bounce in March from the No.107 best-selling sport in February to No.14, seemingly due to its launch on PC. Stardew Valley on PC and Sifu on PS5 additionally noticed vital participant spikes in March.
In complete, online game gross sales had been up 4% year-over-year largely due to cell content material, whereas {hardware} gross sales dropped 32% year-over-year with all console platform spending down 30% or extra. The PS5 remained the best-selling console in each unit and greenback gross sales.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.