Capcom hit us with a serious surprise at the PlayStation 5 Reveal event. With the announcement of the next entry of the Resident Evil series, Resident Evil Village (8), the anticipation is already swelling up in the video game community, as Capcom is continually ensuring that the series is at the forefront of the video game industry. Speaking of which, the company also announced that the entire Resident Evil franchise has now sold more than 100 million units in its entire lifespan, making it the first Capcom series to accomplish this feat.
In the press release, Capcom states that the majority of these sales, approximately 80%, are from outside their native Japan, which shows just how much of an impact the franchise has had around the world. Resident Evil boasts seven mainline entries, with a soon to be eighth, as well as many spin-offs and remakes that have had varying degrees of success. This is most evident with the latter, specifically Resident Evil 2 Remake, which went onto be critically acclaimed and would win the Golden Joystick Game of the Year Award as well as be nominated at The Game Awards.
The success can also be attributed to the original PlayStation titles that set the tone way back in the 1990s. With its gritty, dark, and horrifying set pieces, Resident Evil 1 and 2 were unlike any other at the time, and Capcom caught lightning in a bottle very early. They continued to set the pace, and revolutionize the industry in the process with Resident Evil 4, which is now considered one of the greatest games of all time. Some fans disagreed with the direction the series was going after this, and it was easy to see why as the scary/horror style the franchise was known for was slowly transitioning into an action-oriented one.
Realizing that they needed to get back to their roots, Capcom brought the scary and horror environment back in full force with Resident Evil 7. They followed this with the aforementioned Resident Evil 2 Remake in 2019 and with Resident Evil 3 Remake in 2020, both of which shipped in the millions and more than likely helped account for this new statistic. Capcom is firing on all cylinders at the moment, and when the now-upcoming Resident Evil Village releases we expect those lifetime sales numbers to go up exponentially.