Square Enix has constantly said that they needed to move at least 5 million copies of Final Fantasy XV out of the gate in order for the game to start on the path of breaking even. They touted at one point that they needed to sell 10 million for it to be profitable. Well, they moved an insane number of copies on day one.
According to Eurogamer, Square Enix managed to ship a total of 5 million copies to retailers around the world, making Final Fantasy XV one of the fastest and largest moving products they've ever developed and published. Eurogamer also notes that the game was the most downloaded game on launch day for any title released in Japan and the biggest release in Asia outside of Japan. That's insane.
Unfortunately, they don't quite list any numerical figures on the digital downloads, so we have no idea how that compares to the 5 million they shipped to retailers.
As pointed out by Trusted Reviews, the number of retail SKUs shipped isn't figured into the sell-through rate. We likely won't know the sell-through until the end of the week. I know some people get really antsy when it comes to shipped versus sold, but one thing to keep in mind is that in cases like the Xbox One and Wii U, both Microsoft and Nintendo shipped more units during certain quarters than what they sold through, so during the quarterly reports they would indicate that they shipped x amount of units and forget to mention what the sell-through was. When it came time to report on the install base, the figures didn't always match up with the amount of units they shipped, since unsold shipped units will either be returned or wait in storage until they can be sold.
Trying to pass off shipped units as sold units can create discrepancies in how the actual sales of a product is measured. Nevertheless, we do know that Final Fantasy XV has sold an insane amount on the digital front, based on the fact that it's breaking records in Japan and Asia. Combined with the amount of units shipped, it's not hard to figure that they have actually already sold 5 million units between retail sell-throughs and digital purchasers.
Some of you may remember that earlier this year Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata had told Famitsu that they would like to see 10 million units sold. That statement came after he originally told Famitsu that they needed to sell 10 million for Final Fantasy XV to be profitable.
There were repeated reports from Square Enix that they needed to get out at least 5 million units within the first quarter of the game's launch. This caused a lot of concern for gamers because they worried about the quality of the game and whether or not Square was attempting to churn out something as quickly as possible in order to recoup development funds.
Final Fantasy XV is one of those rare development-hell cases that sits on a shelf alongside The Last Guardian and Duke Nukem Forever. All three games took more than a decade to complete.
In the case of Square Enix's prized JRPG, it appears as if they did right enough by the franchise and the fans to get a lot of people talking and at least get millions of copies out onto retail shelves. Now we just need to see if they can keep up the sales pace to hit that coveted 10 million.
