Persona, a popular JRPG franchise, has reached a new sales record according to a blog post from series developer Atlus. Translated from Japanese into English by VentureBeat, Atlus announced that Persona has surpassed 10 million copies sold worldwide. They also discussed their plans for future event to reveal more details about the next installment in the Persona series, Persona 5 Royal, an updated version of Persona 5 set to release on PlayStation 4 in Japan on October 31 and in western regions sometime in spring 2020.
The 10 million copies sold include not only the main series games, but also the spin-offs. Though it’s unclear how many copies of each individual title have been sold, though Persona 5 has sold 2.7 million copies alone. Last year, Persona publisher Sega released a 2018 financial report which stated that, as of October 2018, the series had achieved 9.3 million copies shipped. In the time since, Persona Q2 was released on the Nintendo 3DS in Japan in November, followed by a western release this past June, which likely contributed to pushing the series over the 10 million copies mark.
The Persona series first made its debut in 1996 as a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei RPG series. Persona follows high school students who can harness the power of arcana cards, which represent their true personalities—their personas—and are received from a mysterious man named Igor.
Currently, fans are awaiting the release of Persona 5 Royal, a retelling of Persona 5, which first released in Japan in 2016 and in the West in 2017. This updated version includes new features, such as Show Time attacks involving multiple characters and the baton pass mechanic in battle, while building upon the original story from Persona 5. Leading up to the game’s release, Atlus has released a series of trailers focusing on individual characters and exploring some of the new features.