The coronavirus has had a predictably severe effect on physical sales of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, although overall video game sales are up.
Even before the coronavirus it became commonplace for sequels to sell considerably less than their immediate predecessors when it comes to physical sales, due to the rise of digital, but the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake last week was also hit by the effects of the lockdown.
Not only are most shops closed, but Square Enix has had considerable trouble shipping stock – which is why they allowed the game to release early in Australia and some European markets.
And in the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is only on PlayStation 4, compared to the multiformat Final Fantasy 15 (which also happened to launch just before Christmas) and selling only half as much seems like a major accomplishment.
Despite all these problems though, Final Fantasy 7 Remake still managed to sell twice as much as last week’s Resident Evil 3 remake and the entire UK boxed games market actually grew by 2% – thanks to increased demand and ongoing postal deliveries.
According to GamesIndustry.biz over 1 million boxed games have been sold in the UK since the start of the lockdown, rising to 1.5 million if you include the previous week and the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Those are the sort of sales figures usually only seen in the run-up to Christmas and yet there isn’t another new release on anything like the scale of Final Fantasy 7 Remake until arguably Minecraft Dungeons in late May or Ghost Of Tsushima in June.
The coronavirus crisis offers a great opportunity for the games industry but at the same time makes it very hard to launch any new titles, putting most companies’ production schedules back by months.
Although information on digital sales is never made public in the UK, hardware sales have also been up during the lockdown, with the Nintendo Switch (and Ring Fit Adventure) now sold out across much of the world.
As a result, it’s existing games with mass market appeal, and those bundled with new hardware, that are doing best in the charts, with Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, FIFA 20, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe all seeing major rises in sales.
UK all formats retail chart – 11 April
1 (-) Final Fantasy 7 Remake (PS4)
2 (1) Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4/XO)
3 (4) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NS)
4 (3) FIFA 20 (PS4/XO/NS)
5 (25) Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS)
6 (6) Forza Horizon 4 (XO)
7 (2) Resident Evil 3 (PS4/XO)
8 (9) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (XO/PS4)
9 (8) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4/XO/PC/360/PS3)
10(17) The Last Of Us Remastered (PS4)
Ukie Games Charts©, compiled by GfK
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