Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is “underperforming” and has sold about half of Remake

 

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has sold “about half” of what Final Fantasy 7 Remake managed in the same timeframe, and is currently “underperforming”.

The news comes courtesy of industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners, a company dedicated to analysing videogame sales data and producing reports.

Also, not to be that guy, but Rebirth is underperforming sales wise (not that sales performance is related to what that guy said lol)

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 11, 2024

In a thread on X, Ahmad said “Not to be that guy, but Rebirth is underperforming sales-wise,”. When asked if he could provide more details, Ahmad stated “It’s selling about half of what Remake sold in the same timeframe.”

Finally, when asked for a source, Ahmad replied that the data came from “equities research reports, who are getting the data from the usual trackers”.

Amusingly, Ahmad’s insights came during a weird conversation in which one user by the name of VulcanJoker jokingly tweeted about how Rebirth didn’t make historical sales due to its great gameplay or story, but because of the abundance of scantily clad females.

I'm just staying the obvious. Gamer target audience are nerdy male virgins. You want to sell to them? You better cater to demand.

Come on, you think FF7 – Rebirth made historical sale bc of good story? great gameplay? pphsstt… nah… pic.twitter.com/HMtD0Lej8K

— John Lee (@VulcanJoker) April 11, 2024

As people have pointed out, there are a lot of reasons why the second game may not be doing as well as the first. Here’s a few examples:

• Remake had a lot of hype going into its release due to being a massive remake of a seminal game.
• Remake benefited from launching during the pandemic, when people were buying a lot more games.
• Remake launched before the current cost of living crisis, where people had a bit more spending power.
• Remake launched on PS4 which has a much bigger audience, whereas Rebirth launched on PS5.
• Sequels typically don’t sell as well. A lot of people may have bought Remake due to the hype, and didn’t enjoy it enough to grab the sequel at launch.
• Slightly confusing naming may have had an impact.

In terms of numbers, we know that Final Fantasy 7 Remake managed to sell around 3.5m in the first three days, then 5m copies in a four month span, and would go on to sell 7m as of last year.

As for Rebirth, its currently estimated at around 2m so far. Square Enix has not provided any official confirmation. They have notoriously high expectations, often to the point of being considered laughable, so their lack of any comment on the success of Rebirth does perhaps indicate they aren’t completely happy with it.