While the first quarter of this fiscal year has proven exceptionally successful for Capcom, Resident Evil 3 isn’t faring as well as its predecessors. During the title’s first three months on the market, the RE3 remake sold 2.7 million units worldwide. It’s a noteworthy number, sure, but an underwhelming one considering comparative sales figures for last year’s RE2 (4.2 million) and 2017’s RE7 (3.5 million). The franchise itself has reached an impressive new milestone, though, now sitting at a staggering 100 million copies sold.
Capcom relayed news of its first quarter fiscal year earnings in a financial report. According to Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad, Capcom’s FYQ1 results have never been higher.
Highest FYQ1 results for Capcom ever.
Once again continuing the trend of higher sales than normal, as we’ve seen from multiple game companies that have reporting earnings, during the COVID-19 lockdown periods. https://t.co/3108NfIOrw
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) August 3, 2020
The publisher managed to achieve such a feat despite Resident Evil 3’s relatively middling market performance. At 2.7 million units moved in three months, it trails behind sales of the Resident Evil 2 remake by quite a significant margin. Comparatively, RE2 crossed 4.2 million in sales in just over two months. Alex Aniel, author of the upcoming book Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil, shared the following stats,
RE:3’s 2.7m sales in 3 months are underwhelming compared to recent new RE games. In their first quarters:
RE:2 – 4.2 million (2 months+1 week)
RE7 – 3.5 million (2 months+1 week)
RE6 – 4.5 million (3 months)
RE5 – 4.4 million (3 weeks)Don’t think COVID-19 is entirely to blame.
— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) August 3, 2020
It should be interesting to see how RE3 will fare long-term, especially with yet another Resident Evil entry on track to release in 2021. Resident Evil Village, a continuation of RE7 (though not technically Resident Evil 8), is currently in development for the PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X platforms.
