Three years after its original release, Resident Evil 7 can, at long last, claim to be one of Capcom’s most successful games of all time. Debuting in 2017, the series’ seventh installment, a soft reboot, has become something of a pivotal release for the franchise by not only trimming away serious narrative bloat accrued over two decades, but trying a wholly unique (for Resident Evil) gameplay approach that, had its developer only cared about sales figures, would never have been necessary.
Up until now, after all, Resident Evil 6 has remained the best-selling entry to date, despite it launching to near-universal negativity from fans and critics alike for straying too far from its roots and incredibly overwrought design, both thematically and mechanically. It’s no doubt to rapturous applause, then, that Capcom has announced RE7‘s new status as top dog, having confirmed in recent sales figures reports that lifetime sales currently stand at 7.9 million units.
For comparison, Resident Evil 6 and its predecessor have recorded 7.6 and 7.7 million copies sold respectively, giving the latest mainline entry a comfortable lead of over 200,000. As an added bonus, the figures also mean that Resident Evil 7 is now the second best-selling game of all time across all of the company’s intellectual property, though it’s unlikely to ever surpass Monster Hunter World‘s impressive 16.1 million.
Further affirmation that Capcom’s gamble was one worth taking, then, though it’s worth noting that the above figures only take into account standard versions of each game. When tallying up and adding collectors and special editions to each total, 5 and 6 continue to surpass 7, though we imagine it’s only a matter of time before those positions change, too.
There is, of course, also Resident Evil Village to consider. The eighth mainline entry is scheduled to arrive in 2021 for next-gen consoles and PC and a new trailer is expected to drop imminently, so stay tuned.