Resident Evil 2 is now the best selling Resident Evil game ever

Resident Evil 2 has officially taken the top spot. Capcom’s 2019 remake has now sold 19.75 million copies worldwide, pushing Resident Evil 5 out of first place after a 17-year run. That’s a big shift for the series, especially when you consider how long Resident Evil 5 had been building its sales across different platforms and console generations. The remake reached the same level much faster.

The remake that kept selling

Resident Evil 2 launched on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2019. Instead of giving the 1998 original a simple visual upgrade, Capcom rebuilt it from the ground up using the RE Engine.

The old fixed camera angles disappeared. In came an over-the-shoulder view, redesigned locations and a more modern control system. Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield still took centre stage, and Raccoon City remained the setting, but the game felt like a new release rather than an old one with cleaner textures. That decision paid off.

The remake sold well from the start, but its staying power has made the real difference. It’s remained easy to buy through digital stores, and regular discounts have kept it visible to new players. Capcom also released updated versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which gave the game another push.

PC has played a major role too. The game runs across a wide range of hardware, still looks good and benefits from an active modding scene. It’s the kind of title people continue to discover years after launch.

During Capcom’s latest reported quarter, Resident Evil 2 sold another 1.42 million copies. That pushed its lifetime total to 19.75 million. For a seven-year-old single-player game, that’s an impressive pace.

Resident Evil 5 finally loses first place

Resident Evil 5 had held the franchise sales record since 2009. Its co-operative campaign and heavier focus on action helped it reach a broad audience during the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era. Capcom later brought it to newer systems, including PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Those releases kept sales moving for years.

Before the latest figures, Resident Evil 5 had sold just over 19 million copies. It remained ahead of every other entry in the series, including Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil Village and the more recent remake of Resident Evil 4. Now it’s been overtaken.

The result also says something about how players responded to Resident Evil 2. Capcom didn’t treat it like a side project or a quick remake designed to cash in on a familiar name. The company gave it the budget and production quality of a major release. Players noticed.

Capcom knows how to sell older games

Resident Evil 2’s success isn’t only about what happened in 2019. Capcom has become very good at keeping its older games in front of players. The company regularly discounts its back catalogue, bundles related releases and updates games for newer hardware. When a fresh Resident Evil title arrives, interest in the older entries usually rises as well.

It creates a simple cycle. Someone plays Resident Evil 4, enjoys it and then checks out Resident Evil 2. Another player starts with Resident Evil Village and decides to try Resident Evil 7. The games support each other, even when they launched years apart.

Capcom sold 23.81 million games during the three months ending on 30 June 2026. In the same period a year earlier, it sold 14.16 million. New releases helped, but older games still did a lot of the work. That’s why Resident Evil 2 continues to matter. It doesn’t need a major expansion or a new marketing campaign every year. It just needs to remain available, affordable and visible.

Resident Evil reaches another milestone

The entire Resident Evil series has now sold 213 million copies. That puts it slightly ahead of Final Fantasy, which has reportedly reached 212 million. It also makes Resident Evil the best-selling Japanese video game series outside Nintendo’s biggest franchises.

The two series offer very different experiences, of course, so the comparison only tells us so much. Still, it shows how large Resident Evil has become since the first game appeared in 1996. Resident Evil 2 now stands at the centre of that growth.

It took a well-known game, rebuilt it for a modern audience and gave returning players something that didn’t feel stuck in the past. New players could jump straight in, while long-time fans still recognised the characters, locations and basic structure.

That balance isn’t easy. Capcom got it right, and the sales figures prove it. Resident Evil 2 isn’t just the company’s most successful remake anymore. It’s now the biggest-selling Resident Evil game ever released.

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The remake that kept selling

Resident Evil 5 finally loses first place

Capcom knows how to sell older games

Resident Evil reaches another milestone

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