Final Fantasy XVI Reaches 3 Million Physical Shipments And Digital Copies Sold

Final Fantasy XVI hit PlayStation 5 exclusively last week on June 23, and less than a week later, Square Enix has announced it has shipped and digitally sold 3 million copies. 

It’s a somewhat odd metric to parse out because copies shipped and sold aren’t the same. For example, a shipped copy might still be sitting on a game store shelf, while a digital copy sold is money made. Nonetheless, between physical shipped copies of FFXVI and digital versions purchased by players, Square Enix says it has reached 3 million copies sold. 

We’re delighted to announce we’ve shipped and digitally sold 3 million copies of Final Fantasy XVI on PlayStation 5. Thank you for your support! #FF16 pic.twitter.com/8YGfo1RXyV

— FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) June 28, 2023

That’s a great launch for any game, especially one exclusive to PlayStation 5. However, its predecessor, Final Fantasy XV, which it Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2016, remains the series’ best-selling game at launch. When FFXV hit PlayStation and Xbox seven years ago, its day-one shipments and digital sales exceeded 5 million on launch day (thanks, Polygon). FFXVI has hit 3 million in roughly six days, it appears. FFXV also reached 6 million global sales faster than any other entry in the Final Fantasy franchise; now we wait to see if FFXVI beats that.

The previous new Final Fantasy launch (excluding this year’s pixel remaster collection) before FFXVI was last year’s Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, a spin-off title set in the world of the first Final Fantasy. Stranger of Paradise had the fourth lowest launch for a Final Fantasy spin-off game in Japan (thanks, Eurogamer), just above a few spin-off Wii titles, so today’s FFXVI numbers stand in stark and impressive contrast to that. Mind you, I love Stranger of Paradise – I even got the Platinum trophy for it on PlayStation 5 – but it’s clear players are more willing to show up for the mainline Final Fantasy games compared to the series spinoffs. 

According to game sales analyst Benji-Sales, FFXVI’s launch numbers also come in a tad bit under 2020’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, which reached 3.5 million in three days. 

For more, read Game Informer’s Final Fantasy XVI review to learn my thoughts on the game and then this opinion piece about why we love the Active Time Lore feature so much. After that, read about how we think Final Fantasy XVI gets localization right, and then check out our combat tips guide and beginner’s tips guide. And if that’s not enough, we have more than two dozen features about the behind-the-scenes development of Final Fantasy XVI in our cover story hub for the game. 

Are you one of the potential 3 million players playing Final Fantasy XVI? Let us know your thoughts so far in the comments below!