After 15 Years, Resident Evil 5 Has Finally Been Dethroned as The Series’ Best-Selling Game

After 15 years, Resident Evil 5 is no longer the highest-selling entry in Capcom's survival horror series, the publisher has revealed.

New sales figures for the Resident Evil franchise show its sales crown has now been taken by the Resident Evil 2 remake, which has now shifted 19.75 million copies — enough to slip past Resident Evil 5's final total of 19.01 million.

These totals are interesting for several reasons. Firstly, the fact that Resi 5's sales have taken a decade and a half to topple says a lot about the huge excitement for that game when it initially arrived — riding on the coat tails of the beloved original Resi 4, despite ultimately being judged as nowhere near as good.

Secondly, these totals show that the Resident Evil series' back catalogue continues to sell really well. Capcom's Resident Evil 2 remake launched back in 2019 and is clearly still shifting copies (and has likely benefited from the subsequent launches of other Leon S. Kennedy-starring titles such as the Resi 4 remake and Resident Evil Requiem).

Speaking of the Resi 4 remake and Requiem, you might wonder where their sales are in all of this. Well, they are still selling brilliantly, too — and may yet both eclipse Resident Evil 2 to become the franchise's top sellers, given enough time.

Resident Evil Requiem has now sold 8 million copies, a figure that will undoubtedly rise far further as the game gets discounted over time and receives its highly-anticipated post-launch expansion. Resident Evil 4's remake, meanwhile, is now on an impressive 16 million copies sold.

All combined, the Resident Evil franchise has now sold a combined 213 million copies across all of its games — a figure which sees it edge past the 212 million total sales of Square Enix's Final Fantasy franchise, although these have not yet been updated for this financial quarter.

Other Capcom games selling well include new franchise Pragmata (now up to 2.51 million copies sold) and Monster Hunter: World which has now sold an astonishing 30.45 million copies.

Next up for the Resident Evil franchise is the launch of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie on September 16, before the arrival of Resident Evil Veronica sometime in 2027.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social