Sega Sammy accidentally revealed how much some of its recent games have sold, and I now totally understand why the publisher seems so hesitant about moving on from the Persona 5 era.
In a new 'Management Meeting' presentation published earlier this week, the publisher tried to black out its sales data behind a grey block on page 25. Although some especially nosey fans found that if you highlight what's behind the box, then copy and paste it, you can see exactly what's back there. (Numbers!)
The Blue Blur is obviously doing very well for a mascot platformer. Sonic Frontiers has sold around 4.5 million copies, Team Sonic Racing is at 3.5 million, and even Sonic Superstars did respectable business with over 2.4 million copies.
On the JRPG side, though, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance have all pushed past the 2 million mark. Meanwhile, Yakuza: Like a Dragon is inching closer to 3 million and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is almost at 2 million.
Easily the heaviest hitter on the list is Persona 5 Royal, though. The evergreen juggernaut has sold a whopping 7.25 million copies, and that doesn't even count sales from vanilla Persona 5, which had sold around 3 million copies last we heard.
There's been a running community joke about Atlus' resistance to moving on from Persona 5, and with these mega numbers out in the wild, I can totally understand why we've had so many spin-offs, with a still-upcoming P5 gacha on the horizon. Atlus has of course gone back to remake Persona 4 and 3, along with a brand-new fantasy series, but it's taken a little longer to get to the long-awaited Persona 6 than expected.
In fact, the only official thing we've heard about the next full Persona game is that it's in development. (Quick, act surprised.) "We are actively preparing for the future development of the Persona series as a studio," P-Studio lead Kazuhisa Wada recently teased. "We are working hard to meet the expectations of fans around the world, and our work is progressing well. Please stay tuned for more updates. We look forward to your continued support of the Persona series."
