Resident Evil 2 Remake Has Outsold The Original RE2

It's been a good few years for Capcom and Resident Evil. 2017's release of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard marked a return to form for the long-running survival horror series, with a surprising shift to a first-person viewpoint, while this year's remake of Resident Evil 2 was also met with critical acclaim--it's one of GameSpot's Best Games of 2019.

Capcom has now announced that the high praise from fans and critics alike has led to the Resident Evil 2 remake achieving more than 5 million units in sales as of December 4, 2019. This is significant, because it means the remake has now surpassed the lifetime sales of the original 1998 release of Resident Evil 2, which has sold around 4.96 million units.

That's still not quite enough to push it into Capcom's top five best-selling games of all time, as Street Fighter II occupies the fifth spot with 6.3 million units sold. It's also behind Resident Evil 7 which has sold 6.8 million units as of September 2019. Resident Evil 2 is on its way, though, especially considering it's been on sale for less than a year.

Capcom will be hoping the recently announced remake of Resident Evil 3 performs just as well. Much like this year's Resident Evil 2, the Resident Evil 3 remake is a reimagining of the original game, with an over-the-shoulder viewpoint and modernized gameplay mechanics. The 1999 release went on to sell 3.5 million units, so the remake won't have to sell quite as many units to surpass it. Resident Evil 3 also comes packaged with Resident Evil Resistance, an asymmetrical multiplayer game, and is launching on April 3, 2020, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.