Sales of Square Enix Holdings Co.’s new Final Fantasy game tumbled during the second week after its release, a sign of continued weak momentum in the video game publisher’s biggest titles.
Final Fantasy XVI’s mainstay Japan sales fell almost 90% to 37,763 copies during the week to July 2, video game tracker Famitsu estimates showed Thursday. The figure does not include digital downloads.
The latest installment in the long-running role-playing franchise debuted two weeks ago exclusively on Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation 5, with initial hopes high that the $69.99 game would be the blockbuster Square Enix needed.
Square Enix shares fell as much as 1.3% before paring losses and gaining 0.1% during early morning trade in Tokyo Friday. The broader Topix Index was down around 0.7%.
Read more: New Final Fantasy XVI Fails to Stick the Landing: Game On
The Tokyo-based company said it sold over 3 million copies worldwide during the game’s first week, a much slower pace than its predecessor, which hit 5 million on the release day alone. Shares in Square Enix have slid 14% since the release of the big-budget game in June.
The game’s dropoff in its second week isn’t atypical. Final Fantasy XV in 2016 and Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2020 both incurred a similar 90% sales decline.
“Everything in XVI is just so different from the previous Final Fantasy games that fans loved,” Toyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda said. Even when taking into account the number of people who might have purchased the game digitally, the sales figures are low, he said. “It would be difficult to sell more without a deep price cut.”
(Updates with share price reaction)
