Tales of Arise has sold 1 million copies it its first week on sale, beating previous entries to become the fastest-selling game in the franchise. This milestone has also contributed to the Tales series as a whole reaching 25 million worldwide sales.
What does this Tales of Arise milestone mean for the series?
In a press release, Tales of Arise producer Yusuke Tomizawa said Bandai Namco was "proud and humbled" to see fans reacting so well to the new game. Tomizawa said the goal with Arise was to open up the series to as many people as possible while still retaining what made it so popular with existing fans. It looks like he and his team have achieved that goal. Tales of Arise launched on September 9th, so the fact it's managed to sell a million copies in that short space of time is very impressive.
Tales of Arise's success was written in the stars as early as last week's launch. When the game was released, it quickly broke concurrent Steam player records set by Tales of Berseria and Tales of Zestiria. Bear in mind those are records set across those games' entire lifespans, while Tales of Arise's records were set during its first day on release. Since that time, Arise has smashed its own record too, reaching a whopping 60,274 concurrent players a few days ago. It looks like Tales of Arise's star is set to ascend even further as more people discover its charms.
Why has Tales of Arise been so successful?
It's never possible to pin something like this down to a single factor. Tomizawa and his team's beginner-friendly approach has doubtless helped; Arise was deliberately developed with beginners in mind, and that was clear from early on in the game's publicity cycle. It's also undeniably prettier than its predecessors, helped in no small part by a new engine and new shading techniques. Let's not forget, too, that it's been five years since the last mainline Tales instalment, so fans will be hungry for a new game to get stuck into.
Time will tell whether Tales of Arise continues to smash franchise records. According to Gematsu, Tales of Symphonia is the best-selling Tales game around the world at 2.4 million units, followed closely by Tales of Vesperia at 2.37 million. If Tales of Arise continues on its current trajectory, it'll beat those games handily. You can grab it on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC if you want to assist in its meteoric rise.
Are you playing Tales of Arise right now? Planning to pick it up soon? Let us know in the comments below!
