Resident Evil Village’s first week sales in Japan were the series’ worst in 19 years

The first-week physical sales of Resident Evil Village were the series’ worst in Japan in nearly two decades.

The latest Famitsu boxed game sales data shows that the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game combined sold 149,884 copies in the first week in Japan, which is significantly less than the 231,188 Resident Evil 7: Biohazard managed in 2017.

As shown by historical sales data held on Game Data Library, the only times a main entry in the Resident Evil series had a worse opening weekend were the original Resident Evil on PlayStation (which sold 148,904 copies) and Resident Evil 4 (which sold 145,533 copies when it was a GameCube exclusive).

Recent instalments Resident Evil 3 (189,490) and Resident Evil 2 (265,324) also enjoyed stronger debuts in Japan.

It’s worth noting that Famitu’s sales data only covers physical copies, and digital sales will be much higher in 2021 than in previous years, likely pushing Village’s first week much higher up the series’ sales rankings.

UPDATE 14/05/21: According to Japan-based analyst and investment adviser David Gibson, Resident Evil Village also sold some 150,000 units digitally in Japan, for around 300,000 copies in total.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES: Many regions of Japan are also currently in a State of Emergency, and it’s possible that Village’s first-person perspective also impacted sales, since FPS games have historically struggled in Japan.

Outside of Capcom‘s home market, Village enjoyed a strong first-week performance. According to the publisher, Village shipped over 3 million units worldwide in its first four days on sale.

Capcom’s figure means that Village is tracking ahead of previous instalments Resident Evil 3 (2 million in five days) and Resident Evil 7 (2.5 million in four days). It’s also matched 2019’s Resident Evil 2, which also took four days to ship 3 million units.

Village also recorded the second biggest physical launch week of 2021 in the UK to date, behind only Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury.

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Capcom’s horror adventure is a deliciously hammy hybrid of past glories, with some real series highs

It also enjoyed a strong debut on PC, comfortably smashing the series’ record for concurrent players on Steam.

Capcom has said it hopes Village will become the franchise’s best-selling entry, following strong sales of the game’s last numbered entry (8.5m), which is its no. 1 title.

“Our main ambition for this year, although there’s so much going on at the same time, is to make sure Resident Evil: Village will be the best-performing Resident Evil title, both in terms of quality as well as business,” Capcom’s EMEA marketing director Antoine Molant told GI.biz in March.

VGC’s Resident Evil Village review calls Capcom’s horror adventure “a deliciously hammy hybrid of past glories, with some real series highs”.