Sega Sammy Holding’s annual financial report was released yesterday (full details here). The 146-page document gave a revealing light on how Sega and Atlus’ video game franchises have done commercially. Some numbers were surprising (such as Sonic managing to top 350 million copies sold), while others were pretty much what people expected to see (Persona has sold almost seven million units).
One of the other series to be detailed was the Ryu ga Gotoku series, which is much more commonly known as Yakuza in North America. Yesterday’s numbers revealed that Sega’s action-adventure series that deals with the Japanese crime world (and occasionally is a karaoke simulator) has sold 9.3 million units since the games debuted in 2005 on the PlayStation 2. Now the Japanese company has confirmed those numbers in an announcement on their website, and revealed how the latest game in the series has sold.
According to the new figures, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life has already sold over 500,000 copies. That’s particularly impressive when you consider that the game is only available in Asian territories, and just came out earlier this month (December 8). It shows that the series is still strong after over a decade of releases, and is a great sign for Sega.
Keep in mind that these sales don’t include North American and European sales for the three most recent installments in the series. That means the numbers will only rise in the near future as the prequel Yakuza 0 launches in North America on January 24, 2017. That’s the start of a busy stretch for Yakuza fans as later that summer Yakuza Kiwami (an enhanced remake of the PS2 original) will come out in North America and Europe, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life will find its way stateside in early 2018. That means, you’ll want to clear your schedules and save up some money.
