Atlus has announced that the Persona series has slid past 22 million copies sold, releasing a special Persona 3 Reload trailer, "Promise", to celebrate. It's an impressive milestone, one which demonstrates how vast the gulf between the various players in the space remains; Final Fantasy, for comparison, has sold more than 180 million units across its admittedly much more extensive catalogue, and Dragon Quest racking up some 88 million, with both IP owned by Atlus competitor and OG RPG publisher, Square Enix.
The Persona series began on PS1 in 1996 with Revelations: Persona, a spinoff of Atlus' mainline Megami Tensei series, which would be played far more widely when it was released on PSP in 2009 as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. The next game would be split into two parts, released separately as Eternal Punishment and Innocent Sin, getting PSP rereleases of their own. As you might have noticed, Atlus loves to double dip and has been doing so since day one.
Things began to take shape with Persona 3 (and subsequent rereleases FES, Portable, Reload) evolving into the form we love and cherish today, nailing the split between personal life management and Dark Hour dungeon-delving. Persona 4 ratcheted things up a notch further, expanding upon the series' gameplay foundations and finding goodwill with Vita fans when the inevitable Golden remaster arrived exclusively on PlayStation's plucky handheld.
But Persona 5 is where Atlus truly broke into the mainstream, and the subsequent release of Royal and its various offshoots cemented the series as an RPG classic and one of the most visually impressive games ever made. Add to all that strong sales, incredible music, and a passionate fanbase, and we feel confident that the Persona series won't go away anytime soon.
How many copies of each mainline Persona game are you personally responsible for purchasing? What is it about the series that gamers have found so addictive for the better part of two decades? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments 24
Too many to admit publicly XD All of them 16 times across platforms and digital versus physical. Also 2 more for presents.
I've only ever bought Persona 5 and P5R. As much as I would like to buy Persona 3 Reloaded its characters and art direction do not interest me as much compared to 5, well that and Im playing FF7R rn. If there is a Persona game that I'm gonna buy it will probably be Persona 6.
I was a big fan! But the gay jokes in persona 5 changed the way y enjoy the franchise, I will try p3 remake at some point, lot of jrpgs to enjoy right now
N.i.c.e. the persona games are excellent.persona 5 royal is one of the best video games ever made.word up son
P5R 2x (ps4 and switch, will get again on Steam Deck)
P5 Strikers 1X (PS4)
P5D 1X (PS4)
P4G 2x (Steam and Switch)
P3P 1x (Switch)
7 apparently… and I think this illustrates one of the big challenges for Sony which is all things being even I would prefer to play these games on a portable and Sony doesn’t have one
22m is not even semi-popular. They’re never going to make a game as popular as World of Warcraft so they should probably just give up, go get an office job.
P3 and P4 originals, both on PS2
P3P on PSP
P4G on Steam
P5 on PS3
P5R on PS4
P5S on PS4
P3R on PS5
Wow, more than I realized.
I wouldn't compare the whole FF-franchise to a spinoff from the SMT-franchise, but yeah.
@IntrepidWombat P4G was on the Vita first before any other platform.
@Rafie Persona 4 Golden was, yes, but Persona 4 (not Golden) was not. It was exclusive to the PlayStation 2 for 4 years.
@McBurn Persona is bigger than Shin Megami Tensei now.
I would even say Persona is its own franchise now
@DragonBl : I'm not disputing that. Still only a couple games VS the whole SMT series, which would add at the very least another 10-20 mill. Not that it matters, but it is still doesn't make it a good comparison.
Great series. In hindsight it's kind of surprising that the originals 3 and 4 didn't get more recognition on ps2. Well persona was quietly regarded as a series that people who tried it loved even back then, but it's odd that it didn't take off more.
@IntrepidWombat I said P4G, not P4. I said it because you only had Steam there for it when it dropped on Vita first and it was exclusive for years until the Steam release.
@Rafie Understood. I was only listing what I had personally purchased, and I've never owned a Vita. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
@McBurn genuine question for a fellow trails fan. How much has that series sold as a whole.
@Ryne-Gaia: I wouldn't know but a quick google search shows me 7 million a year ago. So with the slowly rising popularity and three new release since that year I'd guess a little less than 10 million by now.
However I only care about sales as far as it being viable for them to release their games to the west.
@McBurn I understand it. The whole franchise will always sell more, but I wonder how many people who buy Persona games, would buy a Shin Megami Tensei Game, or Devil Summoner.
@DragonBl it's probably convinced a lot of people to at least give them a try. Whether they like them or not is a different question.
Just finished P3R last weekend. The worst part of the game was when it was over. I even slow played it and clocked over 150 hours. Just didn't want it to end. Can't wait for Persona 6.
@Tidus_g The gay dudes hitting on Ryuji changed your view on Persona, but you didn't have an issue with the camping trip scene in Persona 4? That just makes no sense.
@Balosi If they didn't like it, they would stick to Persona I believe.
Just saying that Persona is big and different enough to be it's own thing, since many who play Persona don't like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona is in my opinion popular enough to be compared to Final Fantasy alone.
@McBurn I mean so do I but like 7 million ain’t bad. I mean shoot it means it’s slowly gaining on Persona. Perhaps one day it surpasses them. Wonder when or if they’ll ever have their P5 Moment.
@Ryne-Gaia I think they'd need to focus a bit more on their presentation. Persona is a great game, but it can't be understated how much attention they got for their flashy UI and stylised graphics.
Trails would need something unique of their own to stand out.
It's also more difficult to get into Trails with their continuous story across all their games. People do stick with it once they get started ('cause the games are excellent) but getting them to try is another matter.
To cut things short, I think they have a long road ahead of them to really break into the mainstream.. I wish them luck
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