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The Persona series has sold over 10 million games and assorted products since its inception in 1996, as reported by the Sega Sammy Japanese Annual Integrated Report 2019 (via Persona Central).
Sega Sammy is a conglomerate formed of Sega, the video game developer and publisher, and Sammy, developer and retailer of pachinko and pachislot systems. Seems straightforward but I’m just making sure we’re all on the same page here. Its focus is on entertainment and pachinko or pachislot industries, and so it tracks the most successful intellectual properties of both companies and provides sales data.
As such, the impressive statistic for the Persona series lifetime sales does include merchandise like toys and pachinko and pachislot machines as well as the games themselves. Still, it’s an incredible milestone for a series spanning two decades. Persona 5 released in Japan in 2016 and then its worldwide release came in 2017, and met with critical and fiscal success. Persona 5: The Animation followed swiftly after, with 26 episodes airing in Japan between April and September 2018.
The 900,000 unit increase between 2018 and 2019 that pushed the Persona series over the 10 million mark was also helped along by Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. A rhythm game, it was the third of the spinoffs that included Persona 4: Dancing All Night and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight. And, fighting title Persona 4 Arena and its sequel Ultimax were super popular arcade games in Japan before they were released in all regions for consoles.
In addition, the report announced that Megami Tensei series has sold over 17.4 million units, as a result of a five million units sold rise between 2018 and 2019. Persona Central theorised that the free-to-play mobile game Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2 is the driving force of the increase, which came out in Japan in early 2018.
The next installment in the series is Persona 5 Royal. Persona 5 Royal is a revised re-release of the game in development and will add a tonne of extra features and content. For example, the Phantom Thieves will explore new locations and new hangouts, new battle mechanics and Personas, and a new dungeon crawler mode.
Persona 5 Royal will be released on PS4 in Japan on October 31, 2019. It will then be released in the West in 2020.
