Yakuza Series Hits Record Number of Sales

When you think of a long-standing series in gaming you are likely thinking about Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Mario, Zelda, or Call of Duty. However, unlike those games that have sold millions of copies per release, the Yakuza series has hardly tickled that figure with any of its releases. Since 2005, the Yakuza series has told its strange and wonderful stories of sharply dressed men with bricks for faces, mostly centering around Kazuma Kiryu. 15-years on, 8 main games, several spin-offs, and two full remakes of the first two games, you’d assume the series has sold well.

According to financial records dug up by PC Gamer that I’ve had trouble tracking down from SEGA’s parent company SEGASAMMY HOLDINGS Inc. The series (for the most part) has been fairly niche for such a lengthy series in gaming, and the sales figures seem to show that. Selling 14-million copies through the series entirely, which is up from the previous year’s numbers, the long-standing franchise of hitting men with bicycles continues to grow. Part of this growth in success (one would assume) could be contributing to the overall opening up of the series in the west following its 2005 dubbed version seemingly flopping.

With the latest growth over the last few years in the west of the Yakuza series comes a desire for it to appear on other platforms too. Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the latest release in the series, released on Xbox One and Series X/S in conjunction with the PS4 release in the west for the first time. Meanwhile, PS5 players will have to wait until next year for the next-gen Yakuza experience. One would have to assume with recent Xbox and PC releases now joining the typical PlayStation releases, the games have reached a much greater audience than ever before. Though it is still fairly niche compared to its bedfellows.

As PC Gamer notes, the series only sold 11-million copies world-wide in 2018 when Yakuza 6 released in the west, jumping up 1-million the year following. While the series does target what is a rather small audience, it is nonetheless grown in recent years and seems to continue that trend with a growing fan-base.