Five years on, Final Fantasy 15 is officially a sales success as it crosses 10 million copies sold

By Hirun Cryer
published

The action-RPG has hit the sales goal of its development team

Final Fantasy 15
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 15 has finally hit the sales goal set by its development team over five years ago, crossing the 10 million lifetime sales milestone. 

The news was revealed earlier today by the official Japanese Twitter account for Final Fantasy 15. This sales milestone now means Final Fantasy 15 is the third best-selling game in the entire Final Fantasy franchise, trailing only to Final Fantasy 10 with 10.5 million copies sold, and the original Final Fantasy 7 with 13.1 million copies sold (per IGN). 

See more

What's really interesting, however, is that this is the exact sales milestone alluded to by game director Hajime Tabata over five years ago, just prior to Final Fantasy 15 launching. At the time, Tabata said Final Fantasy 15 would need to sell 10 million copies in order to be considered a success, primarily due to its lengthy development history.

Shortly afterwards however, Tabata would clarify his comments, revealing that the 10 million sales milestone was instead the development team's personal goal for the game. Well, if that's the case, there must to be some very happy former Final Fantasy 15 developers out there today, as the game has finally hit the goal they laid out over six years ago.

It's a minor miracle Final Fantasy 15 ever saw the light of day, let alone went on to sell 10 million copies over six years after launch. Starting life as an ill-fated Final Fantasy 13 spin-off, the original game was canned and rebooted under Tabata and company, who spent years reimagining it as a real-time action-RPG. 

Final Fantasy 15 would receive three story-based DLC packs after launch, and the positive reception to the final one - Episode Ignis - prompted Tabata and company to develop a new DLC tetralogy called The Dawn of the Future. Only part one of the arc - Episode Ardyn - would release, and the three subsequent parts were cancelled when Tabata departed Square Enix in November 2018. Final Fantasy 15 might've had a rocky start, middle, and end to life, but it's nice to see it end up a success for Tabata. 

For a primer on the next mainline entry in the Final Fantasy franchise after 15, check out our Final Fantasy 16 guide for more. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.