LogFAQs > #972274724

KamikazePotato posted...

AA5 beat sales expectations because expectations were in the pits. It almost didn't get localized - a Capcom higher-up had to lie in order to get approval because of his faith in the series. Even then the sales weren't nearly as good compared to Apollo Justice, which had amazing sales in Japan thanks to goodwill from the DS trilogy re-release popping off. Nothing ever came close to AJ's opening sales numbers again.

AJs Japanese opening, no. However, worldwide the last two big releases (Trilogy HD and TGAAC) are the two best selling in the series by a lot. In fact a third of the series entire lifetime sales have been since 2018, largely thanks to those two. You also have to bear in mind the rise of digital - with that factored in DD likely matches AJs Japanese sales and it definitely beats it worldwide. Sales-wise the series is in the best place its been.

The worst place was easily right after 1 launched in the west, I was following the series from then and the mood when the NPD numbers came in was grim. Only 10k sold in its first month in North America, reports of massive caches of unsold games and so on. What followed was a super-unexpected word of mouth phenomenon keeping the series alive. Sales picked up in North America and it debuted strongly in Europe which led to us getting the sequels at all. It is basically just to show that you can never really count the series out.