Today Square Enix clarified that it considers Final Fantasy XVI to be a success in terms of sales, putting to rest media speculation about the issue.
In a statement to IGN, the company explained that initial sales of the game are "extremely strong" especially considering that it debuted on a single platform with a relatively limited installed base.
With 38 million PS5 consoles shipped globally (as of March 31, 2023), sales of Final Fantasy 16 surpassed three million units worldwide several days after its release on June 22, 2023-
Taking into consideration the sales figures of the acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the difference in size of the install base of the PlayStation 4 at the time of this title’s release, we can see that the attach rate of Final Fantasy 16 is considerably high, given the PS5 install base.
Square Enix considers the initial sales results of Final Fantasy 16 to be extremely strong, and we will continue to carry out a wide range of initiatives to encourage even more people to play the game.
A few media reports painted the sales of the game negatively based on the fact that sale figures dropped sharply after the first week on the shelves. Yet, the problem with that reasoning is that these reptors were based exclusively on boxed sales.
The physical market is extremely frontloaded, as most people who buy physical tend to also pre-order, and the fact that Sony has pushed digital sales strongly with a full-fledged digital only console compounds the problem with judging a game's performance based on boxed sales.
Final Fantasy XVI is currently available exclusively for PS5 and you can read our enthusiastic review in which our Andrew Stretch defined the game as "everything he could have hoped for and more" and "a deep story and fully fleshed out world that you'll want to be protecting." .
A PC version has also been confirmed by Yoshida-san himself, but Square Enix will need time to optimize the game for the platform, so we don't yet know when it'll launch. You can also read our interview with Yoshida-san and art director Hiroshi Minagawa.
Recently, we learned that PlatinumGames and the Kingdom Hearts team at Square Enix helped out with development . On top of that, the game has been updated to version 1.03 and plenty of Bring Arts action figures have just been made available for pre-order.
