Resident Evil 4 Remake Sells 3 Million Units in Just Two Days

A major Resident Evil 4 Remake sales milestone has come just days after its release for  Capcom!

Within just two days, Capcoms Resident Evil 4 Remake managed to sell an impressive 3 Million Units. By now, that number is probably a good bit higher, but considering how much hype Resident Evil 4 Remake had leading up to its release, this is no surprise.

It also helped that the review embargo went up almost a week before the release, getting almost perfect scores across the board. (You can read our review here.)

Even if Capcom enforced heavy restrictions on all pre-release reviews, like only using provided video material and barring talking about later sections of the game.

While all of that happened under the guise of keeping audiences free of spoilers, it only showed off the parts of the remake that got the most significant overhaul. It also hid that many of the original's more iconic and out-there set pieces had been cut or significantly overhauled.

Capcom is by no means the only company that has recently enforced more strict restrictions on reviews, but there was also no real reason to either. Outside of some performance issues, the Resident Evil 4 Remake was a great reimagination of the original.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is selling great! But not amazingly.

But let's look at the numbers! And compare them to other entries in the franchise.

Resident Evil 7, which was released in 2017 sold 2.5 million units within its first three days. The Resident Evil 2 Remake sold 3 million units within the first week, the Resident Evil 3 Remake sold 2 million units in 5 days, and Resident Evil (8) Village sold 3 million units within its first week.

While all of those numbers are impressive, those initial sales numbers seem to plateau around the 3 million mark. In lifetime sales, these are a little healthier, with Resident Evil 7 (released in 2017) recording 11.7 million units sold and Resident Evil 2 Remake (2019) selling 11.2.

They are then followed by Resident Evil 5 (2009) and Resident Evil 6 (2012), both hovering around the 8.6 million mark of units sold after years of being on deep sale.

And while fans of the franchise are all in on the current trend of Remakes, begging Capcom to make new versions of some of the spin-offs like Code: Veronica or a Remake of the Remake of Resident Evil 1. We have to come to grips with the fact that Resident Evil is still tiny compared to other gaming giants.

The question is now if Capcom's happy where they are or if they want to chase after bigger and better sales. This would also mean Resident Evil to go places again, most of its hardcore fans are against it.

The fact is that Capcom's bread-and-butter franchise is still Monster Hunter. And while all love a good Resident Evil, horror and survival horror is still a very niche genre. And there are only so many people willing to buy those games.

Maybe Capcom can apply the lessons learned from Resident Evil 4 Remake and the new first-person Resident Evil titles and make the franchise more palatable for general audiences.

And while this threatens to take away everything that makes Resident Evil, Resident Evil. Monster Hunter World, which was released in 2018 is an example of a game that managed to make the core aspects of the franchise more accessible while staying true to the formula.

But Resident Evil's biggest issue has always been its legacy. Even the new titles struggle to escape the gaping abyss that is the series' convoluted canon. Its design is timeless but maybe it is time for Resident Evil to shed its legacy and be reborn as something new instead.

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