If the release of a new opus in the Final Fantasy saga remains an event throughout the world, the colossal figures of our youth are only a distant memory, if only by the progression of dematerialized technology. Even without downloads, 336,027 boxed copies sold for Final Fantasy 16 is a stat that would have put the launches of Final Fantasy 7 (2 million), Final Fantasy 8 (2.5 million), and Final Fantasy 9 ( just under 2 million). At the time of the PS3, Final Fantasy 13 (1.5 million) was still following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy 12 (1.8 million). The sub-million mark came with Final Fantasy 15 in 2016, credited with 716,649 box sales for the week of its launch, just ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s 702,853 sales.
In Japan, Final Fantasy 16 therefore certainly signs the smallest launch of a main Final Fantasy on PlayStation, which does not prevent it from becoming the best launch of a PS5 game in the archipelago, and by far: these are Elden Ring (90,017 sales) and Resident Evil 4 (89,662) which complete the podium. In fact, Square Enix’s game is already the best-selling PS5 title in Japan in terms of boxed sales (we’re talking about total sales here). Remember that Square Enix has sold 3 million copies of its action-RPG worldwide.
The output of Final Fantasy 16 seemed to be the opportunity for the PS5 to regain the lead in sales, at least for the space of a week, but the Switch does it again only as it pleases and, perhaps pushed by the announcements of the Nintendo Direct, returns to the untouchable zone of 100,000 sales. The most important thing for the Sony console, however, is not to compare itself in vain to a phenomenon like the Switch, but to continue its good momentum to make people forget the time of shortages. Last year at the same time, the PS5 had only 480,000 consoles sold since January, against nearly 1.4 million since the start of 2023.