Fire Emblem as a series is, at this point, ancient. The first game came out all the way back in 1990 on the Famicom, and the series has remained largely in its SRPG niche. There’s a lot of reason to think that is no longer the case, however, as the game has broken into NPD’s video game sales figures chart, and how.
The February NPD results, which cover only physical retail sales of new game copies in the United States, points to Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright getting glorious sales:
- Far Cry: Primal (PS4, Xbox One)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)
- Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
- Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm (PS4, Xbox One)
- NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
- Lego Marvel Avengers (PS4, 360, Xbox One, Wii U, PS3, 3DS, Vita)
- Street Fighter V (PS4)
- Minecraft (360, Xbox One, PS4, PS3)
- Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright (3DS)
- Fallout 4 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Interestingly, NPD analyst Liam Callahan went on to say that if sales of Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright were combined with those of Conquest and the special edition, the title would have ranked at #3. Callahan says, “The combined first month sales of Fire Emblem Fates would more than triple the first month sales of the next-highest game within the franchise, Fire Emblem: Awakening.”
Fire Emblem Fates has already garnered the most successful US debut for a Fire Emblem game in the US, proving that the franchise is far from being washed-up. And these results don’t even include digital download sales.
It certainly sounds like the dual-release strategy for Fire Emblem paid off. Are we going to see more Fire Emblem titles with a Pokémon-style dual release?