Final Fantasy 16’s sales have dropped dramatically in Japan after just one week on sale. Square Enix’s highly-anticipated action-RPG has released to a great deal of critical acclaim and while it’sbroken a PS5 sales record, the game’s sales are lagging significantly in its home region.
In its first week on sale,Final Fantasy 16sold about 336,000 physical copies in Japan. This was enough for the game to become the fastest-selling PS5 game in the region, but it was still significantly short of other entries in the franchise. For comparison,Final Fantasy 7 Remakeposted 702,853 units sold in Japan in its first week on sale, whileFinal Fantasy 15managed 716,649 units sold.
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Not only didFinal Fantasy 16debut several hundred thousand units behind its predecessors, but the game has experienced a dramatic drop in just one week. According to Famitsu,Final Fantasy 16only sold 37,763 physical copies in Japan for its second week on sale, a staggering 90% drop. It was even knocked off the top-seller spot bynew Switch gameMaster Detective Archives: Rain Code. Needless to say, this is not a great look forFinal Fantasy 16, but it may not all be doom and gloom.
One thing working againstFinal Fantasy 16is its PS5 exclusivity.Final Fantasy 7 RemakeandFinal Fantasy 15released on PS4, which meant that they had a much larger audience to work with thanFinal Fantasy 16has. It should also be pointed out that these are just physical sales numbers. Digital game sales increase every year, and so it’s quite likely that many more gamers in Japan have decided to purchaseFinal Fantasy 16digitally instead of physically compared toFF7 RemakeandFF15. It’s also worth pointing out thatFinal Fantasy 7 RemakeandFinal Fantasy 15experienced similar second week drops percentage-wise, though they both still sold significantly more copies in their second week thanFF16did.
Even taking these factors into account, though, a 90% drop can still be rather alarming.Square Enix has had some huge financial flopsrecently, and so it’s safe to say that the publishing giant doesn’t want to see such a big drop. As more consumers get their hands on PS5 consoles, perhapsFinal Fantasy 16will get a sales boost in the region, and the eventual PC port of the game could do wonders as well.
Final Fantasy 16has been critically-acclaimedand has made the short-list for Game of the Year for many gamers, but that’s not necessarily translating to the kind of sales that Square Enix would like to see. It’s possible that the game is performing much better in other regions or that its digital sales are simply far outpacing its physical sales, which could mean this drop isn’t nearly as big of a deal as it seems to be on paper. Until Square Enix provides more information onFinal Fantasy 16’s overall sales numbers, all fans can do is speculate about how the game is performing on a global scale.
Final Fantasy 16is out now for PS5.
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