Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth PS5 Sales Slip 91% at Retail

Something is clearly wrong with Square Enix's vision of Final Fantasy now and they need to start correcting this.

I like Rebirth fine enough but it pales in comparison to the golden era of Final Fantasy to me and I don't think it comes close to the original Final Fantasy VII.

Unless Sony acquires them, they should stop doing timed deals with all three of them and start focusing on becoming a better third party publisher.

The reviews this game received are wild. Everyone I’ve heard talk about playing this game, including people who gave it high scores, list so many problems they had with the game.

I have not played it so obviously I have no idea. I’m just saying the discourse doesn’t match the masterpiece level metascore.

Imagine if square gets so disappointed in the sales that they never wind up finishing the game 💀

Almost like if you sell people a faithful remake and lie they'll be pretty pissed who knew? 😅. Seriously the Japanese commercials for remake were selling the idea of a faithful remake hard I'm not surprised this game had weaker sales now that people can see the man behind the curtain

something tell me that Japanese gamers doesn't have a PS5 and cannot afford it. Maybe they are too stubborn to not buy it after unhappy with what Square has done to Remake. We need to hear Japanese gamers' reason as to why they don't buy rebirth.

Do we ever get data on digital sales? Something has gone wrong if final fantasy isnt selling.

Personally Im really enjoying it so far. Those moogles are nightmare fuel though

I was a bit wary of it having been disappointed by Remake but I have to say after around 10 hours, that so far this is the best Final Fantasy has been since the PS1 games

This is sad, man. I absolutely love Rebirth, by far among my favorite games this generation, so this news is quite concerning.

I know some people are avoiding build Rebirth because of the following rationale:
Remake was a PS4 title, Rebirth was a PS5 title, next title will probably be a PS6 title by the time it comes out, might as well wait and grab all titles on PS6.

@Rob_230 I've been enjoying my time with Rebirth, but I just gave up caring about any of the open world stuff compared to a lot of other open world games and just focused on the story

Good, it was mediocre

Best game I played this generation so I hope more people will pick it up. Honestly, most reviews undersell it.

What's up with the hate for Final Fantasy lately? Remake, FF16 and Rebirth are at the very least great. Rebirth specially is incredible.

If you can't play it on the go then Japan doesn't care.

These headlines are misleading when we know the vast majority of sales are digital.

I admittedly bought it Day 1, and binged it that weekend. But I got to the military parade and sort of haven’t done much. In the 13 days since the opening weekend I played through to the beach area, maybe an extra 2-3 hours?

The mini games and the open world collection marathon is grueling and relentless. People tell me to skip them then, but so far every meaningful Tifa/Aerith/Barrett side quest has required side quests. The summons require exploration. If you do skip the minigames and exploration its the equivalent of having to skip important cutscenes that make the game’s characters have depth and story have significance.

It really plays out like Mario Party: Ezio’s Last Far Cry (Rebirth). The actual story, action/dungeons, and meaningful characters development are the rewards for doing the Ubisoft open world and mario party minigames—when Square should have made them the joy and life of the game itself.

@Netret0120 Japan is actually one exception to that rule and more physical than digital is sold there.

https://www.theverge.com/24055863/akihabara-japan-retro-video-games-physical-media

I finished the game last weekend and will never play it again. I regret giving greedy enix money for this disgrace. I will never buy a final fantasy game again unless it goes back to its roots. When I want to play devil may cry I want to play devil may cry when I want to play final fantasy I want to play final fantasy it's that simple.

Ugh, why is anybody giving these clickbait articles the time of day? EVERY game's physical sales are down and most games, that aren't GTAV, drop nearly 90% in the second week. On top of that, this is Japan where physical sales are down even further than in other areas. Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Final Fantasy XVI, etc. all experienced higher digital sales than physical and experienced sharp drop off week on week. This is normal and not at an indictment on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's quality or reception.

So if I assume that it’s a 50/50 physical/digital sales split final fantasy 7 rebirth is sitting just under 600,000 copies sold in Japan, noice!

The sales in Japan doesn't surprise me, Final Fantasy is now pretty much a western focussed gamed whereas those in Japan prefer Anime/Cartoony style visuals and handheld capability for their gaming hence why Nintendo is thriving over there.

I've enjoyed FF7 ReBirth so far and is currently my game of the year so far, great story, great combat, great visuals and just pure fun to play and explore the map. Although I never played the original on playstation 1 so I can't compare and say it's a faithful remake or not but I can say it's fundamentally a really good game.

Another important detail Push Square forgot to add. The game was the second most sold game in Japan. But I guess that doesn't bring the enough clicks.

I am fully enjoying Rebirth and to me one of the best FFs to date.

Divide one game into 3 and that's what happens. FFVII is suffering from "The Hobbit Effect".

I could be wrong but seems to me people are looking too deep into this when it really just comes down to, for whatever reason, both PlayStation and Final Fantasy have lost popularity in Japan. My guess as far as the latter is the move more towards action gameplay hasn't done FF any favors in its home market. Personally, I've never been more into Final Fantasy than I am now, I'm a big fan of XVI in large part because of its combat but in going after people like me, they clearly alienated long-time fans.

I don't know about Japan, but I do know that games disappearing suddenly in the second week can often be down to physical availability issues. It might just be that there weren't any copies to buy.

@AdamNovice Yeah, I noticed too. It's quite sad to see good games being so harshly critized for no good reason. People talk like these games are the quality of a Suicide Squad or Skull and Bones.

Also this game is quite unique in that playing the first is probably considered a requirement by most people. People who haven't played the first prob won't even be tempted to buy it even 'to add to the pile' yet.

I honestly don't get the doom and gloom this game is getting over it's sales, let's put it into perspective against the other big releases on PS5 this year so far in terms of launch sales.

FF7 ReBirth - 262,656
Unicorn Overlord - 24,398
Persona 3 Reloaded - 76, 368
LAD Infinite Wealth - 102,940
Granblue Fantasy Relink - 48,765

Not only is FF7 ReBirth the biggest selling game this year in Japan on Playstation 5, its day one sales are more than those other games put together, and even when you factor in Switch games it's still the best selling game this year so far and sold over four times what Mario vs Donkey Kong did on launch day.

People here are ridiculous. This says nothing against the quality of ff7rb and rather for the quality of vanilla wares latest game and that square Enix should not play exclusive anymore.

Also, this is more the direction FF should follow than 16 with it's plot bordering on plagiarism and and the emptiest, most boring open world I have seen in ages.

Remake/rebirth is very creative of how to go about a remake and people here are wetting their knickers with petty argument of having been "lied to". You call that subverting expectations, grow up.

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if GTA VI becomes the first and only 1+ Million PS5 game in Japan.

but yes these numbers show why Sony has left Japan for quite some time now.

@UltimateOtaku91 interesting info, I had no idea that FF7Rebirth had better numbers than Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 and Grandblue combined. I'm really hoping for a big Rebirth success. This game is special.

@UltimateOtaku91 Im in the same boat I never played the original so I have nothing to compare the story to or setting.

I loved FF7 Remake but Rebirth I stopped half way through as I couldn't stand listening to Chadley anymore or play @#£%ing Fort Condor ever again.
Unistalled and traded it in. #@%& Square Enix.

@pharos_haven I'm kinda glad I didn't play the original, I don't want to be playing a possible 200 hour trilogy constantly comparing it to its 26 year old original.

In my eyes no surprise at all, I would estimate the decline would hit around now, due to the fundamental change of battle system to a hack and slash...

I find the change so incredibly jarring as a long time fan of the FF games to be too much that I have given up with the franchise, I imagine many more gamers also will, in time

I feel that due to the apparent change in direction FF days are unfortunately numbered now it's become a rather generic action game

There are so many 100+ hour RPGs out right now that I’m sure FF7 Rebirth will get another boost soon. Not everyone has time to play 3 100 hour games in a month. Jam packed start to the year!

Just read the room, the Switch numbers in Japan are insane. Sony has barely any foot in the door there.

Not bad for the second in a trilogy. I enjoyed the first fine enough, but I’ll wait until it’s all finished.

Let’s be honest, Sony hasn’t made an effort to cater for the Japanese market, and they’re not going to catch up with Nintendo. But 2 weeks after release about 5% of Japanese PS5 owners own physical copies of FF7Rb. That isn’t that bad.

I think at this time, trying to work out what the Japanese market wants is tricky.
This seemed like a sure fire console seller for Japan, there's plenty of theories I guess.

My theory of why Rebirth isn't selling as well is that it's a sequel that requires you to have played the previous entries. This isn't always a big deal, except that these games are MASSIVE. Plus, many of the references and nuances of the game only make sense if you played the original FF7. For me, I understand that Rebirth is one of the highest-rated games of the year and will likely be nominated for GOTY, but I've never played an FF7 game before. I feel like I can't hop into Rebirth, so I'm one of those people who would love to play this, but I have no intentions of picking it up. I don't have that kind of time anymore.

@awp69

Japan is actually one exception to that rule and more physical than digital is sold there

This is wrong, although it’s repeated so much it’s easy to understand why people believe it’s true.

Ghost of Tsushima officially sold 1M+ in Japan although its physical sales never even reached 500k according to Famitsu. Ghost of Tsushima didn’t even reach 50% digital in the west, and Sony first party games generally have much lower digital sales than other games. Digital sales have increased even more since 2020.

Armored Core VI sold just over 200k physical copies on console yet after 2 months FromSoft said it had sold 700k copies in Japan.

I am sorry to say to all the aging gamers but there are generations that have no idea of the PSone and simply 0 affiliation with FF7 Rebirth.

People talking about exclusivity problems for Square, these people are really trying to say it would sell better on the Xbox in Japan?? On the contrary, the Sony money actually gives Square security.

And once again, FF7 Rebirth and FF16 were the top selling games for PS5 on launch. Strange rhetorics.

@ChrisDeku I mean read the article I posted with that comment. It’s just from last month. If it’s wrong the The Verge and those they talked to are also wrong.

We really need to start integrating digital sales into these reports somehow. There's just not enough data to really draw any conclusions as to how successful or not a game is without that crucial info.

The good news is Square is never nervous to say something didn't sell enough so I'm sure we will get to the bottom of it whenever the next investor call comes around.

@awp69 There is only a single source for this, a sales survey called “Cesa” whose data always has a massive issue in that it doesn’t actually match any released sales data. The data is either completely wrong or the Famitsu sales estimates are completely wrong. If the Famitsu sales estimates are the ones that’s off then this whole discussion is pointless as that’s the source for this original article.

I am guessing they have been put off by the ‘westernisation’ of the genre.

No wonder Nintendo are holding back on a Switch 2 when it’s still outselling PS5 despite being over 7 years old. I know Nintendo is massive in Japan but it’s crazy that it’s still selling those numbers.
This gen isn’t next gen - more like dead gen.

@AlexPorto
From what I gather, Remake and Rebirth have changed things people like about the originals and the endings seem to be what's annoying people to most. I still haven't finished Remake yet, though I'm close, so I guess I'll find out for myself soon enough what all the fuss is about.

Oof Square Enix. Time to partner with PC and Xbox when releasing games to get a bigger audience. The Sony moneyhatting is not enough.

Further proof the game is not well received by the masses.

I don't know about the others but this game is my GotY contender so far and I play many RPGs and ARPGs.

The sales number in Japan is definitely very odd.

Meh, they're average games imo. FF is just too dated an iP nowadays. Anyone there for the OG release don't wanna play crappy remakes 20 or so years later, been there done that. And people who don't have an affinity with the franchise have way better games to play.

Wonder what's the sales figures outside of Japan is like. We get only Japan's sales figures. FF16 is also a PS5 exclusive and 4.6mil Japanese own a PS5 console according to the data shown. Maybe this FF7 Remake is primarily for nostalgic fans. I never played the original, but only started on the remake yesterday.
BTW, as FF7 Remake came with one disc and FF7 Rebirth came with two discs, is FF7 Part 3 gonna come with three discs??

Direct sequels can be tough. A lot of people who missed the first one won't want to jump in at this point. There will also be people who didn't like the first one enough to continue as well.

I can see why a stand alone title like FF16 would do better than part 2 of a three part remake of an older title.

@SirSephy Japanese gamers don't buy ps5? did you try reading the article?

@TrickyDicky99 that's definitely me, I wait for everyone to beta test games and wait for patches to come out. By the time those do the games usually come out on a subscription service. I wait a bit and I get access to a game that works as it should and might even have more content by then. Last time I bought a games was Tears of the Kingdom lol

@CrackmanNL look at Monster Hunter World. It was a PlayStation exclusive in Asia but released on PC & Xbox everywhere else & sold 25 million. Final Fantasy 15 being on PC & Xbox also helped it hit 10 million.

Hey but as long as you have Tifa in a bikini, that's enough to overlook and distract from the mediocrity of the overall game itself, right? Right?!? 🙄🤣

Seriously I don't know what it is about Square. I've been playing a little bit of the original Kingdom Hearts (for the First Time) recently, and it's just pure frustration. I played Final Fantasy 1 and 2 dawn of Souls on the GBA back in the day; 1 was... fine, nothing special. 2 was better, but the new underworld area for the deceased characters had me so weak and underleveled, and there was nowhere to heal as I tried to explore, so I gave up.

I think perhaps only Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore are the two square games I've played thus far that I actually really liked. I didn't even get to finish Mana, for personal reasons unrelated to the game. 😢

Kingdom Hearts reminds me why I don't generally play square games, at least not modern FF titles. I remember buying Crystal Chronicals for GameCube, and that was garbage.

@cragis0001 "Final Fantasy 15 being on PC & Xbox also helped it hit 10 million"

That was a considerably long time ago. We don't know how it would have performed had it come out now on PC & Xbox.

@somnambulance @Shepherd_Tallon It's definitely been a great few years for gaming, if you're lucky enough to own a PS5, Switch and PC/Xbox you're completely spoiled for a choice for great games. Even if you just have one console/PC you probably have more top games than you'll ever be able to play. As for the PS5 the last time I remember so many good games on one console was probably the Dreamcast, the PS5 is fast becoming one of my favourite consoles

It'll be interesting to see how the digital has performed... I buy digital as a general preference now, but NOT on certain "big" games where I actually choose a physical so I have something tangible to mark the occasion.

I've bought FF7 Remake and Rebirth on physical as a result.

As for the game itself... it's exactly what you would expect from what is one of the greatest games ever made. The challenge ge SE had is that the original FF7 had such a wild mix of elements that made it great that it was always going to be difficult for them to do it justice.

One example is the excellent soundtrack. SE have done well with the new Soundtrack (although why shouldn't they, the original was a masterpiece and already done for them!) yet... there are still missteps in the game. Mount Corel is a good example - I love that they've done extra music, I like the tune they've created for this area, but it sticks out as it doesn't fit the rest of the soundtrack or the game. It actually sounds like it samples an 80s pop song.

So it's a strange one for me... you may call it nit picking, and I guess technically it is, but this is FF7... SE knew it was going to be nit picked. My only disappointment is that they don't seem to have cared about that.

Imagine if SE had instead gone in search of tunes from the original game that didn't make the final cut? There must be dozens of them that have never seen the light of day...

To each their own but I'm loving it. It's everything I wanted it to be. I played the original at launch back in the day and so far Remake and Rebirth are easily far better games.

Different tastes there, as the series has moved to be more a WRPG as has the sales been in decline since 15.
In the West however if expect this game to sell about as well as 7 remake

It's not gonna work on switch so there's not much square cam do to boost sales further

@naruball well look at Sega. Yakuza & Persona series have both benefited from recently going multiplatform.

I can think of plenty of reasons why it isn't selling well; a) the initial price point is high,
b) we're enduring a saturation of very high quality games, that demand a lot of time, and people are tired of open world bloat
c) Helldivers 2 is still extremely popular, and no doubt people are playing that instead, (I am) and
d) delineation from the story in the previous title has put people off the series as a whole.
I could add:
e) some people feel like the series isn't truly final fantasy anymore (reception to 16 suggests as much) and the series doesn't garner the same reverence it used to
f) visual issues; textures clipping, and terrible climbing sections. The game isn't flawless and the demo wasn't of a very high quality.

I haven't played rebirth yet, but as a long time FF fan, and as someone who's played and platted the previous remake, I just don't feel that fussed to grab the new game right now. Lots of people say it's amazing, but they also seem to be overlooking all its glaring faults, through rose tinted glasses.

@AdamNovice The ending of remake was bad, simply because it was. Everything they decided to do with the whispers just felt convoluted and unnecessary.

I played Horizon, and by the end of my 60 or so hours, I honestly didn't feel that I needed to play the sequel- it had outstayed its welcome for me, and went from a fun and innovative game, to becoming a tedious experience of collecting things. I have no qualms with Aloy, I just didn't need any more.

Same for Spiderman 2; I played the original twice, and got the plat. I didn't need to play Miles Morales after that, and I don't feel the new suit is enough to warrant spending 40 quid, to essentially play the same game again.

I played GOW, and enjoyed it. I played Ragnarok, and didn't like it as much. I felt the pacing was off, and the game was always wresting control from you whenever you finally felt like things were kicking off. The story wasn't very well told (imo), and the focal point (the actual action) became more of a background element.
And I'm not just expressly against sequels; I played TLOU2 and loved it, feeling it improved upon the 1st in just about every way. The story was exceptional, even for killing our beloved Joel.
Clearly just my opinion, but it's one based on gameplay and experiential data, not just a "that's a horrible face, so I won't buy it" mentality.

I've been gaming for 30 odd years- I guess I'm just harder to impress, these days!

I maintain the incredible digital-only twin pack had something to do with this. Another commenter mentioned the deal wasn't as good in Japan as it was elsewhere, but it was still a deal.

@cragis0001 it's impossible to tell how they would have sold had they been exclusive on Ps5. Some franchises simply explode. Look Monster Hunter World.

@naruball I mentioned Monster Hunter World as one of my first examples. As it was a PlayStation exclusive in Asia but multiplatform everywhere else 👍

I finished on Wednesday, 109 hours, and...

Oh who I am kidding, still Eleventy Billion Stars/10. Had to watch the ending a second time, but now I get it (I think, heh) and am looking forward to seeing what they do with the last part.

That said, I'm thinking about diving back into this one, a fresh going for level 70 run, since I now know where all the important bits are. Seriously, the game is now in my top 3 all time favorite games ever, next to Red Dead 2 and GTA: SA.

@cragis0001 You are bringing up worldwide sales. I am specifically saying Japan sales since these are Japan numbers on the post.

Also Monster Hunter Worlds selling better being a PS4 exclusive proves my point regarding my post about the FF series in Japan.. Monster Hunter Worlds didn't sell as well in Japan compared to Rise btw

@UltimateOtaku91 It's funny because I played the original when I was about 7 years old and it was solidified as my favourite game way back then. My love for the original only enhances how I feel about the Remake trilogy which as far as I'm concerned are shaping up to be even better than the original was.

It's hard to take "fans" seriously when they act like these games are 0/10 trash just because they aren't 1:1 the same. The characters and story are so well expanded upon and the music and combat are so incredible that if someone is truly a fan then they should be able to find something they enjoy in these games.

As an avid ff fan since ff6, i usually have my gripes about the game but I buy it anyway. I did it with 12, I did it with 13, 15, 16 etc... And... i did it with remake. Like most ff fans I was so hyped for a remake of one of the best ff games ever, and I was left extremely disappointed. However, this time i decided I would vote with my wallet. So I didn't buy rebirth. And I refuse to buy the next one.

I may be in the minority (although I don't think that is true), but I'm done supporting a company that refuses to listen to its player base. They promised us a remake and we got this crap instead. For this reason, I think the sales are down; it sold less than ff16. And that game was extremely controversial.

sometimes the answer isn't analytical; sometimes its not because of the install base, or the game being part 2 etc... Yall have every excuse under the sun. Sometimes, its the most simple reason. Until Squeenix begins to listen to the fan base, I will no longer buy ANY FF game moving forward.

@Zenos I'm on the last few chapters, I've heard about the ending a little and I know it won't bother me. I've been very open to how the story goes from the beginning.

@Lmaooo Considering how well the games review and sell, you are indeed the minority, FF16's "extreme controversy" was also a small group of constantly displeased fans. Square do listen to their fans but the fans aren't a hivemind and we all have different ideas as to what makes a FF title a good game.

As a fan, I'm very pleased and you are a fan who is not pleased. They can't please everybody. There's too much entitlement.

@Zenos People who like and enjoy something don't tend to post it all over the place and scream it from the rooftops as much as people who hate something so it's not unusual.

I can't say too much as I would be mostly speaking out of ignorance having not seen the ending yet but I'm used to the FF fanbase overreacting about the smallest things. There's still another game after this one so even if I do hate this ending, I'd still reserve full judgement until it's all over.

@Zenos I think I saw somewhere that Square said that the trilogy will line up with Advent Children and "make sense" so I guess we'll see!

@Zenos The link if you're interested https://www.eurogamer.net/final-fantasy-7-remake-trilogy-will-link-with-advent-children-confirms-producer

@Zenos @Cloud39472 This is what I am hoping for, I wouldn't mind seeing some origins for Kadaj (SP?) and his Crying Game bros.

Also, I think Cloud is cookoo for cocca puffs at the end of Rebirth, and I'm here for it!

@ceedj That would be awesome. There's so many possibilities with this remake and that's why I love it so much. I'm here for crazy Cloud too, the scene in Gongaga was brilliant!

@cragis0001 I should have clarified. Monster Hunter was on ps2 and didn't do particularly well, then on psp it became a hit. On 3ds an ever bigger one. But it reached new heights on ps5, a home console, when everyone said that home consoles had been abandoned in Japan. So sometimes the success of a game can be unpredictable. Releasing to more consoles (plus PC) is not a sure thing for success, otherwise everyone would do it. The success of a game can be incredibly tricky.

If you want to look at a more straightforward example, then consider the success of Spiderman. It was multiplat for ages, yet its sales were mediocre. It became a juggernaut after it went exclusive (thanks to Insomniac making a great game among other things). It didn't need PC to be incredibly successful. The PC port came way after it sold incredibly well on its own.

@Zenos Please tell it isnt as hard as FF9 jumping rope trophy.....

@J2theEzzo Everyone loves other stuff i loved Horizon Zero Dawn put 120 hours in without starting the expansion.

I especially loved how they made collectables fun and meaningful to get and you couls always go back to collect everything.

I also had a blast with the gameplay. But im so far behind wifh gsming i dodnt evn play the first new GOW. 🤣

@saffeqwe I could be wrong then

@Cloud39472
The game is not selling well so far and neither ff16. Square hasn't listened to fans in over 20 years.

@Lmaooo What are you talking about? Last we heard, FF16 had sold 3m copies and is the number 1 best selling PS5 game in Japan. FF7 Rebirth is number 2 and we only have sales data for Japan so far and it doesn't even count digital. You're jumping to conclusions to suit your agenda.

Who's "the fans"? You? Are you the spokesperson for all fans? You should only ever speak for yourself. They're not listening to you for sure.

@tameshiyaku
Or lying.

@alien ok, having artistic freedom and not delivering exactly that what some die hards demand (who could just play the original instead) equates to lying? Of course one could see the world in such black and white terms and break their backs doing so, but where's the fun in that.

Physical sales mean nothing when we don't have digital numbers also Japan is not the dam world we live in world that u don't need to go to a store buy a game anymore u can do right in front of u more people are buying digital if u like or not physical media is dead.

I think FF is done in Japan they now go for the Persona, Shenshi Mugan and dragons Dogma type games. FF have become far to western and it was the turn base style that Japan loved the most but it's not gone.

@Zenos Thank goodness that one was a ceimw against humanity. But dodging lighting wasn't something that made me happy either.

Im even more disappointed that they stuff it with so much filler. Chocobo breeding racing and breeding was cool enough. Maybe a little bit more effort in the relations would have been enough.

But for me they stretched out the game way to much it's such a pity that they do this to such a fantastic game one of my favorite PS1 games maybe even my all-time favorite.

Im certain with a graphical upgrade, the new controls and some extras the game would have been even better ans done way faster. Ok maybe with the new Jessie it would have been even more fantastic.

Final Fantasy 7 was my GTA along with FF8 where i loved the story of that one. Maybe a real Parasite Eve remake dont make it different just make better looking with some updated (optional) new controls.

@AdamNovice maybe people are just getting bored of Sonys same third person action adventure games they keep making over and over I know I am. I loved the war reboot struggled to finish Ragnarok I loved spiderman also struggling to finish spiderman 2