Final Fantasy VII Rebirth might be an excellent follow-up to Remake, but that isn’t enough to stop the series’ recent decline in Japan. While Rebirth was able to top the sales charts in Japan, the game has sold significantly less than Remake and even last year’s Final Fantasy XVI.
According to Famitsu (via Push Square), Rebirth has sold 263,000 units in Japan, a respectable number but significantly down from its predecessor. Remake was able to sell 703,000 units at launch back in 2020, meaning that Rebirth has sold almost 500,000 fewer copies since. To add more salt to that wound, Final Fantasy XVI sold 336,000 units last year.
In defense of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, several factors may have led to the series’ recent decline in sales. Both Rebirth and XVI are only available on PlayStation 5, whereas Remake was on PlayStation 4, which had gained a huge player base by 2020. We should also point out that 2020 was a pandemic year, so fans probably bought the game since they were stuck at home with nothing to do.
Even with that, the fact two recent entries in Final Fantasy haven’t done too well shows a decline in this franchise’s property. Back in 2015, Final Fantasy XV had sold a little over 690k copies at launch, though it eventually reached a million sales after time passed. Rebirth only sold a bit better than XV at launch by about 10k, which isn’t saying a lot.
Luckily, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is doing pretty well in reviews, which should translate to decent sales in the West. Despite losing some traction in Japan, Final Fantasy is still fairly popular in the rest of the world. Final Fantasy XVI sold 3 million copies at launch, though Square Enix couldn’t decide if that was a success or not last year.
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available on PS5, with many hoping the game also comes to PC this year.