
Anytime a Final Fantasy game is released, seemingly regardless of quality, we can't help but anticipate publisher and developer Square Enix's favourite refrain, that the game in question had "failed to meet expectations." Such was the case with the excellent Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, released exclusively on PS5, although SE would ultimately change its tune. Just released on PC, Rebirth is currently enjoying a "fantastic" launch on Steam, to Sony's great chagrin (probably).
Circana's Mat Piscatela broke the news on Bluesky that, across physical and tracked digital sales, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was the best-selling game of the week ending 25th January in the US in dollar sales. A twin pack, offering both Remake and Rebirth, secured the #3 spot. Piscatela wonders why "video games sales sickos" keep asking how it compares to Marvel's Spider-Man 2's seemingly disastrous Steam launch: it's because we're broken inside, Mat.
Are you surprised to see Final Fantasy VII Rebirth find continued success on PC? Is it appropriate to compare the relative performance of two formerly PS5-exclusive games on Steam? Let us know where you stand in the comments section below.
[source bsky.app]
Comments 28
Knowing Square, it failed to meet expectations like always
How bold for Piscatella to claim Rebirth has "fantastic" launch at Steam. If it sold the same as PS5 version (2 million copies?), SE gonna claim it's a flop and doesn't meet expectations 😆
Not bad at all. This week I expect Spider-Man 2 to be even lower considering both Sims Legacy Collections were released, they seem to have sold rather a lot.
Its been fun. I hate having to use mods to get ultrawide support though. But I am breezing through it on PC. Never finished it on ps5, but I think this time I will get it done. The mini games drove me nuts on ps5. Cheat Engine for the win lol. Yeah I will be that guy.
Lots of glazing going on over these PC game sales but I don't believe it for one second.
Matt said something similar for Indy and then when we got the monthly chart it didn't actually sell that well at all also Gamalytic which is usually considered one of most accurate and consistent trackers available to us has it at about 350k which isn't that much really, actually it did that in just physical copies in Japan in the first week on PS5.
The estimates aren't really that high, but this is one of those situations where if it sells well people will say it should have been on PC all along and if it sells poorly people will say it's because it wasn't on PC at launch.
From what I can see, Rebirth did pretty well on PS5 to begin with, but Square Enix obviously always has extraordinary expectations.
@breakneck Yep all these analysts are suddenly shouting it is a massive success on PC then conveniently follow up their tweets with FF shouldn't be exclusive and it needs to be on PC day one. A quick look on the newly updated Steam best sellers list has shows Rebirth has dropped all the way down to the 35th spot after just 1 week.
Honestly I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them and I'll laugh my ass off if part 3 is still timed.
EDIT: Don't get me wrong though I actually want Rebirth to succeed but I'm not sure how much lower sales are a massive success all of sudden and it's kind of convenient some of them are suddenly calling for exclusives to end altogether, especially after a towel has been thrown, it's almost like it's coordinated.
The console exclusive is dead and this is a good thing. PlayStation on PC, XBox on PlayStation.
@LifeGirl Wishful thinking you have there but Xbox is still as irrelevant as ever. There's no benefit to playstation putting their games on a dead platform.
Chart positions are meaningless without any real context.
FF7 Rebirth sold around 380k(PlayTracker estimate) on Steam so far(10 days) and it was 30% off at launch and pre-order.
So not bad at all, but a fraction of what a FF game sells week one on console, and at a reduced price.
@breakneck the guys at digital foundry are great, but I'll never base a game purchasing decision purely on a technical analysis.
Also, the gaming community really loves to pick and choose who to bash in unequal fashion. Remember the outrage the low Res doors in ff7 remake received? In the meanwhile black myth wukong has entire Forrest foliage made of huge green triangles and mountain passes that look like from the PS2 era and nobody says a thing. I'm fine with that, I had a blast with wukong despite that, but gamers and the media clearly pick their darlings and their punching bags.
Rebirth is so good it should be exclusive though!
@MrMagic you made almost all the points I wanted to write when I saw the headline)
Surprised no one mentioned the steam rating - at 76% currently, which I think more accurately reflect the game’s quality. If you read the reviews, this drop (compared to ps5 and remake) is not exclusively due to technical problems with the port itself.
Also, shout out to the crowd accusing PS of anti-Rebirth bias: here is a piece of good news about it, and PS duly reported on it.
My favorite game this gen and it's not even close. I'm glad more people are getting to play it.
@LifeGirl Less sales and a 30% discount what a succes. 😆😂🤣
I waited for the Steam release, so I added to their coffers. I've actually been so displeased with how Sony has been running playstation that I've only purchased ER and Shadow of the Erdtree from the PlayStation store since 2022. I haven't had a chance to play Rebirth yet. I've almost completed the og game on my switch
I dont understand the media and how obviously biased it is towards xbox and pc. It likely sold like 200-300k copies and at $40-$50 too. After steams cut they made like 10 mil. Conpare that to the the atleast 170 mil they made at launch on Playstation, im not sure why its suddebly a success now. I think more people pirated it on pc then bought
@RagnarLothbrok it was $48 on Steam with a preorder discount. Not sure where you're getting any of your information from...but it seems like you're pulling stuff out of thin air. There haven't been any sales numbers released (even from PS5 sales), so you're obviously making up numbers. Also, piracy is undoubtedly happening, but if it were as rampant as you (or a lot of other people on this site) seem to believe then there would be some media coverage on the matter.
Edit: also, great name
@RagnarLothbrok @Vovander yeah I just think it's weird, Matt clearly has an agenda, he's been blocking people who ask him how is it a massive success on PC even though it sold way less than on its first week on playstation.
It doesn't matter how polite you are either, any mention of it and he blocks you.
I recently bought it on pc but runs terrible the opening animation , the fps was really bad. Got a deal on cdkeys for half the price
@MrMagic Indy has 4m players according to the figures Microsoft released this week. They've said it's a huge success but its playerbase is mostly on GamePass.
@8bitOG im not saying it shouldn’t be on PC on anything. I’m just annoyed but this glazing on pc gaming and constant media crapping on console gaming. Ff16 got the same thing for 3.5 mil in a month on Ps5. Came to Pc and suddenly all was great, but was later report by matt pisc… i think that it sold like 260k in 3 months at high discount pricing. Using the it was the top seller this week with nothing of note released.
Also thanks, anyone who hasnt yet should watch Vikings, great show
I didnt expect it sell 100k but its been reportedly close to 500k copies sold and digital downloads on steam so this is excellent news and fears of developement delays for FF7R part 3 are put to rest
@MrMagic its kinda that elitist attitude of journalist who were given 3 thousand dollar rigs by these companies for free that think everyone should also be on it and is possible for even children
DA Veilgaurd got nearly 50,000 more all time concurrents on steam and was considered a sales flop so this must be an ultra sales flop on PC for Square. I can see why moving console multiplat makes sense for them.
@RagnarLothbrok Yeah I'm sure I remember Matt saying one time that he wants everything on PC because that's were he plays and then he deleted the tweet a couple of hours later, anyway we'll see how it charts for the month in a few weeks when Circana releases the data.
@Rob3008 I knew about the 4 million players but I was talking about actual sales.
@MrMagic These same analysts will turn around in a few months and praise Nintendo for they're exclusive content that drives value.
I'm glad the game is on PC and more players are enjoying it. I'm just sick of the narrative that it's a failure because it was a PS5 exclusive. The game did very well on PS5 for a year.
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