Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth enjoyed widespread critical acclaim upon its launch earlier in the year on a level that no game in the series has in a long, long time- though it seems that critical acclaim isn’t quite translating to commercial success in the manner that Square Enix would have hoped for.
That’s as per Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, who recently claimed on Twitter that, based on equities research reports and sales tracking data, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is underperforming where its sales are concerned.
While exact figures remain unknown (with Square Enix also having remained unusually tight-lipped about the game’s sales), Ahmad says the action RPG is selling about half as well as Final Fantasy 7 Remake did in the same post-launch timeframe, and that it’s also likely to have slower long-term sales than its predecessor.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was the second best-selling game of February in the United States behind Helldivers 2, and the two games held the same positions in the PlayStation Store charts for the most downloaded games worldwide for the month. In Japan, however, the game saw slower start, especially by mainline Final Fantasy standards, selling over 262,000 units at launch, compared to Final Fantasy 16’s launch sales of over 336,000 units, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s launch sales of over 702,000 units.
In our review of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, we awarded it a score of 10/10, saying, “The promise of those old, grand, globe-trotting Final Fantasy epics from the series’ 16- and 32-bit heyday in AAA form has been fulfilled at last. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth finally realizes the series’ central, implicit potential, looking to the past to pave the way for hopefully the start of a new golden age for the series.” Read the full review through here.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is available on PS5. Development on its sequel is underway, with Square Enix hoping to wrap up the project in three years.