Final Fantasy IV
Image: Square Enix

Square Enix's mammoth RPG franchise and its defining IP, Final Fantasy, has topped 180 million unit sales. In March 2022, the company reported that the franchise sat at a very cool 173 million, meaning 7 million more games have been shifted in the past year or so.

Spotted by our sister site Push Square, this milestone announcement came earlier today from a bit of an unusual source — Kageki Hankyu — alongside the announcement of an all-female Musical Theatre production of Final Fantasy XVI, the newest mainline instalment in the storied series (which is currently a PS5 exclusive).

While Final Fantasy XVI has managed to shift 3 million units in its first few days (and that number has grown since then), a good chunk of those numbers likely come from the console release of the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series. The faithful remasters of the first six Final Fantasy games — both the NES and SNES trilogies — have sold, in total, over 2 million units (this figure includes the Steam versions, which launched back in 2021/22).

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line both dropped on Switch during this period, with both titles available on the Switch. So it's been a solid year for the premier RPG franchise — even if not all of it has been on Switch.

For a rather amusing statistic, the entire Final Fantasy series has sold just as many copies as Grand Theft Auto V has. That's a pretty eye-popping number for a franchise — let alone a single game. Even if GTA V has been rereleased multiple times.

Only one RPG franchise has sold more than Final Fantasy, and the answer won't surprise you — Pokémon. Game Freak's monster collecting series is the third best-selling video game franchise of all time, only behind Tetris and Mario (although Mario includes Mario Kart, Mario Party, and the normal Super Mario series). Pokémon has sold 480 million units across all games, including spin-offs.

Whatever is next for Final Fantasy on Switch, we're excited to find out. You can actually play every numbered Final Fantasy game between I and XII (except the MMORPG XI, but let's count X-2 in its place) on Switch, which is pretty fun.

What do you think of this news? Do you own any Final Fantasy games on Switch? Let us know in the comments.

[source kageki.hankyu.co.jp, via pushsquare.com]