Resident Evil Requiem passes US$500m as film opens with series-best US$108m
Resident Evil Requiem has made more than US$500m, about £377m, and is outpacing every other Resident Evil game to date. The figure comes from estimates by Alinea Analytics, a games market research firm, reported by Eurogamer.
Requiem is the ninth mainline game, meaning a numbered entry in the core series rather than a spin-off. Its most popular platform is PlayStation 5, where it has sold 4 million copies. Almost a third of those PS5 sales, 30%, were physical discs rather than downloads.
The wider platform split is lopsided. Only 8.6% of sales were on Xbox, with the rest shared between PS5 and Steam, the major PC storefront, according to IGN. That leaves PlayStation and PC to carry more than nine in ten copies sold.
For comparison, the remake of Resident Evil 4 has made more than US$600m after three years on sale, according to the same estimates. Requiem is closing in fast. It has done so in a fraction of the time.
The sales milestone landed alongside a big cinema weekend. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot earned more than US$108m worldwide in its opening weekend, a series-best opening for a Resident Evil film. Capcom, the game's publisher, had prepared for that attention. It began selling multiple Resident Evil games at a discounted price eight days before the film debuted in cinemas.
The film did not change everything. During its opening weekend, Requiem's daily revenue on PS5 slipped 4%, from about US$284,000 to US$271,000. According to the report, the film boosted game sales less than Capcom's own discounts did.
Older games felt the film effect more clearly. The remake of Resident Evil 2 had 48% more players than normal across all platforms once the film was in cinemas. The remake of Resident Evil 3 saw a 25% jump in players in the same period.
What makes this stand out is the split in behaviour. The newest game kept selling on price cuts and steady demand. The film sent curious players back to earlier horrors instead.
