Every beloved entertainment franchise that’s been around the block a few times has had its fair share of failures and it’s how those missteps are learned from that separate the all-time greats from, well, the rest. Resident Evil is far from the only long-running video game franchise, but in the realms of survival horror, it has no equal. One could even argue, in fact, that the series has never been better than it is today, with Resident Evil 7‘s refreshing soft reboot and a slew of high-quality remakes putting what was once a flailing IP firmly back on track.
It comes as little surprise, then, that the franchise, which celebrates its 25th anniversary next year, has surpassed a monumental milestone. In the first of two reports recently published by Capcom (H/T, VG247), the developer notes that lifetime Resident Evil sales currently stand at 98 million. The second, which deals exclusively with the performance of this year’s Resident Evil 3 remake, confirms that Jill Valentine’s reimagined escape from Raccoon City has contributed 2 million to the overall total.
Now, I certainly don’t proclaim myself to be a maths whiz, but last I checked, those two figures added together come to an even 100 million, representative of total worldwide lifetime sales. To put that achievement into perspective, Resident Evil now sits alongside the likes of Mario, Sonic The Hedgehog, Pokémon and Call of Duty on the exclusive list of properties to have surpassed such a benchmark. Granted, Nintendo’s mascot has almost 650 million sales to his name, but it’s worth remembering that Resident Evil, despite its obvious success, remains part of a genre with niche appeal. In other words, this is mighty impressive.
With a number of new installments – including more remakes – already heavily rumored to be in the works, we expect that figure to grow even further in the years ahead. And for all the latest on Resident Evil 8, you can head over here.
