Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a huge success with 3.5 million sales

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is roaring success right out of the game with 3.5 million copies sold in its first three days. That's even with retail shortages.

Today Square Enix announced some stellar figures for Final Fantasy 7 Remake: The game has sold 3.5 million copies digitally and physically in its first three-day launch period. This figure includes shipments, which is sell-in to retailers and not necessarily sell-through to consumers, as well as digital purchases on the PlayStation Network. Despite being massively hyped and popularized through years of development, Final Fantasy XV is still the king of sales. Final Fantasy XV sold 5 million copies at launch and is still the fastest-selling Final Fantasy game of all time.

There's some important context, though. Final Fantasy XV sold on Xbox One at launch, where as FF7R is stuck to PlayStation 4 (for now). COVID-19 also massively disrupted physical retail availability of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. The game was hamstrung by the pandemic, and shipping logistics were interrupted so badly that Square Enix actually launched the game early in Australia and Europe.

In more ideal circumstances with no availability restrictions and platform agnosticism, Final Fantasy 7 Remake could've rocketed way past FFXV. Square Enix has chosen instead to embrace a staggered launch with the first Remake chapter and the rest of the series. Remember, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is episodic, so it'll span multiple full-priced games. The game that just shipped isn't the end. There will be more.

But before we get sequels--or chapters/episodes--the game will release on other platforms. There's strong evidence FF7R will release on PC at some point. Sadly FF7R is exclusive to PS4 for a full year, so don't expect to see it on any other platforms until April 2021.

A bit more sales perspective: FF7R is now the fastest-selling PS4 exclusive on the market. Well, technically it's not totally exclusive, but for the time being it's locked to PS4. The game has beaten Spider-Man and Horizon Zero Dawn. Here's some quick numbers courtesy of sales-tracker DomsPlaying:

• Spider-Man - 3.3 million (3 days)
• God of War - 3.1 million (3 days)
• Uncharted 4 - 2.7 million (2 weeks)
• Horizon Zero Dawn - 2.6 million (2 weeks)