Japan Sales Charts: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Tops, But Doesn’t Even Come Close to Remake

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: direct sequels are a harder sell than most people realise. The latest Japanese sales numbers are in, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the big talking point. Unsurprisingly, the RPG has immediately topped the charts with 263,000 copies sold — but that total, which may seem fairly impressive at first, puts the game well behind the opening figures of its predecessor, Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

When the first game launched in 2020 for PS4, it managed to move a whopping 703,000 units in Japan. Of course, there is additional context to consider here, since Remake releasing during the height of the pandemic and people were craving at-home entertainment — but there’s no getting around the fact that Rebirth has fallen massively short of nearing those numbers.

Even when taking overall console sales into account, we need to remember that the PS4 wasn’t what you’d call hugely popular in Sony’s home nation. By the time Remake came out, the last-gen system was sitting at 9 million units or so, sold over the course of seven years. The PS5 currently tops 5 million, three years in.

Rebirth is also tracking behind Final Fantasy 16 — a fellow PS5 exclusive — which hit 336,000 sales at release just last year.

Software Sales

1. [PS5] Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix, 02/29/24) – 262,656 (New)
2. [NSW] Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nintendo, 02/16/24) – 14,480 (103,523)
3. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo, 10/20/23) – 11,643 (1,767,792)
4. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World: Chikyuu wa Kibou de Mawatteru! (Konami, 11/16/23) – 9,708 (998,957)
5. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 9,251 (5,728,200)
6. [NSW] Shin chan: Shiro of Coal Town (Neos, 02/22/24) – 7,352 (28,945)
7. [NSW] Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast (Bushiroad Games, 02/29/24) – 6,822 (New)
8. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 5,613 (4,239,708)
9. [NSW] Matsurika no Kei -kEi- Tenmeiin Iden (Idea Factory, 02/29/24) – 5,537 (New)
10. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 5,468 (3,458,115)

Hardware Sales

1. Switch OLED Model – 51,250 (6,787,979)
2. PlayStation 5 – 41,786 (4,613,083)
3. Switch Lite – 6,979 (,5,759,478)
4. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 6,281 (732,266)
5. Switch – 4,302 (19,733,798)
6. PlayStation 4 – 1,722 (7,922,006)
7. Xbox Series S – 1,221 (303,471)
8. Xbox Series X – 1,130 (257,671)
9. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 13 (1,192,865)