Capcom's pleased with how its 2020 remake of Resident Evil 3 turned out. The publisher called the game (along with Monster Hunter Rise) a "hit" in its annual report published today, and it has the numbers to back it up: the game has sold 3.9 million units.
That's more than its original incarnation, 1999's Resident Evil 3, sold, as it only achieved 3.5 copies. Capcom attributes the remake's success to its digital sales strategy, and incidentally, the remake probably sold a few more than that, as that 3.9 million number comes from March 31 of this year. Understandable, given that we felt it was "another stellar remake of a classic survival horror from Capcom" in our review last year.
In an industry that likes to hide sales numbers whenever possible, Capcom's annual report is always a nice change of pace. As usual, it included an update on sales numbers for several new games, such as Resident Evil Village reaching 4.5 million units sold, as well as publisher-described hit of the year, Monster Hunter Rise, which reached 4.8 million. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne sold 2.4 million in the last fiscal year alone, on top of 5.2 million last fiscal year, not including sales of Monster Hunter World prior to Iceborne.
Monster Hunter: World, incidentally, is doing great — enough that Capcom feels comfortable discounting it significantly. Capcom reported that in total, World has sold over 17 million copies, over half of those sold in its second year and beyond. While Capcom notes the game has been discounted to as low as $10 in the past, the game is already profitable — so even sales as low as $5, Capcom suggests, would still be profitable, and the publisher hopes to take advantage of lower pricing to expand its userbase. Its goal, as stated later in the report, is to sell 20 million copies of World.
Notably, Capcom's quarterly report for July through September of this year also dropped at the same time, offering an update on Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, which sold one million in its first few months, and noted that Monster Hunter Rise sales have continued to grow during this period.
In total, Capcom sold 30.1 million total game units in the fiscal year from April 2020 through March of 2021. Of that, 23.1 million total sales were digital, and Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil 3 were the two best-selling individual titles. In a letter from CEO Kenkichi Nomura, he states that Capcom eventually wants to get to a goal of 100 million total game unit sales per year.
We also got annual updates on franchise total sales. The Mega Man games, for instance, have all together sold a total of 36 million copies as of March 31, 2021. The Resident Evil series is at 110 million, Monster Hunter is at 72 million, and Street Fighter has sold 46 million.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
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