Nearly 30 years after the original game arrived, Resident Evil remains an absolute juggernaut in the gaming world. Capcom recently revealed its earnings for the most recent quarter, updating sales figures for some of its marquee franchises. They revealed that the Resident Evil series has now crossed the 150 million units sold mark.
The series dates back to 1996, when the original game was released on the Sony PlayStation. But it has since blossomed into a true behemoth, with more than twenty games in total, including eight in the mainline series. The most recent entry was 2021’s Resident Evil Village, which has sold more than 8 million copies to date. The fact that it was finally released on the Nintendo Switch this year certainly didn’t hurt matters.
Resident Evil is now one of the biggest franchises in gaming history, right in the same ballpark as The Legend of Zelda, which is pretty damn impressive. It’s got nothing on the Mario games, which have collectively sold more than 800 million copies, but the fact that a series of pretty brutal horror games has been so consistently able to deliver commercially is nothing shy of remarkable..
Capcom has also scored some massive hits in recent years by remaking classic games in the series for current-gen consoles. To that end, the Resident Evil 2 remake is now the highest-selling title in the franchise, with more than 13 million copies sold to date. Earlier this year, the much-anticipated Resident Evil 4 remake was released, which has since sold 5.5 million copies and counting.
As far as the future goes, nothing has been confirmed regarding Resident Evil 9, though it is believed that the game will arrive sometime in 2025. Four years between mainline installments would seem about right. If that timeline is correct, it also means that the game would undoubtedly be exclusive to next-gen consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Those who still own a PS4 and/or Xbox One are increasingly going to be left in the dust in regard to new games. Meanwhile, there is evidence to suggest that a new Resident Evil movie is in the works as well, though nothing has been officially confirmed. Given that the movies have $1.27 billion at the box office, it would make sense for the powers that be to keep that train moving as well.
