Final Fantasy XVI pre-orders lagging behind its predecessor in Japan

A Japanese retail chain has significantly fewer pre-ordered copies than Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII: Remake had.
Text: Jonas Mäki
Published 2023-06-05

It's only 17 days to go until the release of Final Fantasy XVI (June 22), the first numbered title in the series since the release of Final Fantasy XV in 2016. While we certainly like what we got to see when we played it a few weeks ago and the expectations are high, it seems like Square Enix might have failed to gather as much hype as they had hoped for. At least in Japan.

As noted by Pierre485 (who tracks sales data) on Twitter, the game has way less pre-orders compared to both its predecessor, Final Fantasy XV and also Final Fantasy VII: Remake, in Japan, according to the retailer COMG. It should be noted that the Final Fantasy franchise has been suffering from something of a downward spiral in Japan for quite some time, even if this drop seems to be bigger than usual.

It could also at least to some extent be explained my more digital purchases, even though physical copies still are big in Japan. Do you think the Final Fantasy XVI hype is as big as always when a new main entry is about to be released, or is it more or less than usual?

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