Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 remake surely was one of the top games to be released in 2023. The perfectly executed remake left many breathless, even if it did have its faults. But it garnered a 93 score on Metacritic, proof that the Japanese company worked very hard in order to deliver the best possible remake of the 2005 classic survival horror game.
So it should come as no surprise that Resident Evil 4 has now sold more than 10 million copies since its release in March of 2023, but has actually done so faster than any other game in the franchise as Capcom revealed in a recent press release (via Eurogamer).
Capcom said the game has “garnered strong support from both new and returning fans”, and also referred to its critical acclaim, saying that it winning numerous awards worldwide was a factor leading to “ongoing sales growth” for Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil 4 is played in an over the shoulder, third-person perspective, and has a gripping story, action, and great characters, including the sexy Asian spy Ada Wong (who’s seen in the trailer below).
Aside from Resident Evil 4, sales figures for previous Resident Evil games were also given, and prove that players don’t seem to have any specific preference for first-person or third-person gameplay.
Actually, Resident Evil 7 biohazard, which got some criticism from fans back in 2017 due to it being played in first-person perspective has sold more than 15 million copies, as many as 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake, a third-person perspective game.
So is the case with Resident Evil Village, which has players fighting grotesque creatures in an eastern European town in first-person perspective, and which has sold more than 11 million copies since its launch in 2021. This is as many as the Resident Evil 3 remake from 2020, which is played from a third-person perspective.
The first Resident Evil game came out in 1996, and is a landmark game in the survival horror game. You would not want to play it nowadays (its dated as hell obviously), but it got a good remaster in 2015. Since 1996, Capcom also says in its press release that the series has sold more than 167 million copies, which is pretty impressive by anyone’s standards… Actually, Capcom boasts of having “successfully executed its long-term catalog sales strategy”, which sort of makes sense taking into account these sales numbers.
Things are looking rosy for the Far East company now, then, with the Japanese company likely expecting great things for its upcoming Resident Evil games. The company has already announced that a new mainline entry in the series (Resident Evil 9) is in the works, while several other remakes of previous entries could be in the pipeline too. Amongst these are Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 5 and the much-loved Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, considered to be the true sequel to Resident Evil 2.
Here’s hoping then, that the next Resident Evil game to arrive – presumably Resident Evil 9, one of the most anticipated sequels of the year – doesn’t take too long to release, and that soon Resident Evil fans and gamers in general will have another opportunity to get lost in another of Capcom’s nightmarish video game worlds.