As with most things, trends come and go, and we should not draw any conclusions from an isolated event in what is, internationally speaking, a fairly limited market, but it appears that Capcom has achieved something spectacular. The Game Business founder and editor Christopher Dring reports that more physical copies of Resident Evil Requiem have been sold at launch in the UK than Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 (the remake) managed to sell.
Of course, this is most likely due to strong sales of a very good game, but at the same time, sales of physical games have declined significantly in recent years. The fact that more physical copies of the ninth regular game in the series are being sold five years after its predecessor and three years after the most anticipated remake in the series to date is, of course, very impressive.
We don't know which formats have driven this, but it doesn't seem to be Switch 2, as one might otherwise have thought, because Dring also writes:
"I've been fascinated to see how Resident Evil Requiem would fare on Switch 2. UK physical data is in, and it hasn't done huge numbers on Switch 2. But it did more in its first week than Mario Tennis Fever. It's broadly the same as what Cyberpunk 2077 did last year (physical)"
As mentioned, the selection only applies to the UK, so we shouldn't read too much into it, but it does show that physical media is definitely not dead and perhaps some people who would normally have opted for a digital version have gone for a disc or cartridge in this case.
Did you buy Resident Evil Requiem digitally, physically, or not at all? Read more about the game in our review.