Resident Evil 4 Remake had big shoes to fill but is managing it just fine.
RE4 was released in 2005 on Gamecube and PlayStation 2 and was praised as one of the best games ever. It redefined third-person action-adventure and survival-horror genres, and its influence is still felt today.
Resident Evil 4 has been remastered for almost every system, selling over 12 million units and becoming the second best-selling game after Resident Evil 5’s 13 million. The series has sold 110 million units since its first release in 1996, according to Capcom’s list of “Platinum Titles,” released on December 31, 2022.
This new from-the-ground-up remake follows a highly successful revitalization of the Resident Evil brand by Capcom since the launch of RESIDENT EVIL VII Biohazard in 2017, continued by Resident Evil Village and similar remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3.
While not having the outstanding 96% on Metacritic of the 2005 release, it still managed a no less impressive 93% on the same review aggregator, with some critics even saying it is superior, in some aspects, to the original.
RE4 Remake is breaking records after just one weekend. It debuted in first place in the UK charts and has 29% higher boxed sales than the Gamecube original. The PC version has also set a new record for most concurrent players in the series, with over 118,000 players on launch day alone.
Capcom, the game’s developer, expects that this release and the highly anticipated Street Fighter 6 in June will help push its yearly sales to a record 40 million units for 2023’s fiscal year.