Capcom’s quarterly reports are out, and things are looking good for the company. One thing that popped out was that the sales for Resident Evil 3, while impressive, fall behind last year’s remake of Resident Evil 2.
RE 3 sold 2.7 million units in three months, but within that same span of time, its predecessor sold five million as of the end of last year. In less than a year, RE 2 beat out the original’s lifetime sales. For this year’s remake to do the same, it will need about a million more players to buy it, which is possible due to the franchise’s popularity.
While some may want to blame COVID-19, business development manager Alex Aniel at Brave Wave Music, a record label focused on gaming, points out it is falling behind other games in the zombie-infested franchise. In his tweet, he points out that in two months, RE 7: Biohazard sold just over three million units, three months in for RE 6 to reach over four million, and three weeks for RE 5 to accumulate over four million.
RE:3's 2.7m sales in 3 months are underwhelming compared to recent new RE games. In their first quarters:
RE:2 – 4.2 million (2 months+1 week)
RE7 – 3.5 million (2 months+1 week)
RE6 – 4.5 million (3 months)
RE5 – 4.4 million (3 weeks)Don't think COVID-19 is entirely to blame.
— Alex Aniel (@cvxfreak) August 3, 2020
Review wise, the remake of Resident Evil 3 did not receive the same type of praise as its sibling. It currently holds an average score of 80 across all three platforms on Metacritic. Meanwhile, Resident Evil 2 holds an average of 91 on Metacritic.
Regardless of the underperformance of RE 3, the entirety of Resident Evil is Capcom’s first franchise that has surpassed 100 million copies sold.
