00:00Final Fantasy VII is one of those rare video games that never really stopped being relevant.
00:05When it launched in 1997, it didn't just elevate Square's flagship RPG series, it helped push the entire medium forward.
00:13Now, nearly 30 years later, Square has confirmed that the original Final Fantasy VII has officially surpassed 15.5 million
00:21copies sold worldwide,
00:23further solidifying its place as one of the most commercially successful and influential role-playing games of all time.
00:31What makes this milestone especially notable is how steadily the game continues to sell.
00:35In mid-2025, Square reported that Final Fantasy VII had crossed 15.1 million units sold.
00:42In less than a year, that number has grown by roughly 400,000 additional sales.
00:47For a title that first released on the original PlayStation, that kind of sustained demand is almost unheard of.
00:53It's not being driven by a new remaster, a flashy relaunch, or a marketing blizz.
00:58Instead, it's the result of decades of word-of-mouth, cultural relevance, and evergreen reputation that continues to pull in
01:06both new players and returning fans.
01:09A massive portion of those sales came from the game's original one on PlayStation hardware.
01:14Around 10 million copies were sold on the original PlayStation alone, back when RPGs were still considered niche in many
01:21parts of the world.
01:22Final Fantasy VII helped change that perception.
01:25It wasn't just successful by genre standards, it was successful by mainstream standards,
01:30standing alongside the biggest games of its era and proving that story-driven RPGs could be system sellers.
01:38Another key reason Final Fantasy VII's sales continued to climb is its near-constant availability across platforms.
01:45After its PlayStation debut, the game eventually made its way to PC and later expanded to mobile devices with releases
01:52on both iOS and Android.
01:54Console re-releases followed on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch,
01:59making the game accessible to players regardless of their preferred ecosystem.
02:03It has even been included as a legacy bonus title on the Switch, too,
02:08ensuring that the original 1997 release remains part of the modern gaming conversation.
02:13This approach has allowed Final Fantasy VII to exist as a living product rather than a museum piece,
02:20constantly rediscovered by new audiences, while long-time fans often re-buy it out of convenience or nostalgia.
02:28Looking at the broader picture, these sales contribute to an even bigger milestone for the franchise as a whole.
02:34As of early 2026, the Final Fantasy series has surpassed 207 million units sold worldwide.
02:41That's a staggering number built across decades, multiple generations of hardware, and wildly different creative directions.
02:49Within that lineup, Final Fantasy VII continues to stand above the rest.
02:53Final Fantasy XV has crossed 10.3 million units sold.
02:57Final Fantasy XVI sits at roughly 3.8 million,
03:01and the Final Fantasy VII Remake project has moved more than 7 million copies.
03:06All of these are strong performers, yet none of them have eclipsed the original 1997 release as a standalone title.
03:15Part of the reason Final Fantasy VII continues to resonate is its story and presentation.
03:20The game follows Cloud Strife and the eco-terrorist group Avalanche as they battle the Shinra Electric Power Company,
03:27a corporation draining the planet's life force for profit.
03:30What begins as a rebellion against corporate exploitation gradually expands into a much larger conflict
03:36involving identity, memory, environmentalism, and fate,
03:41all anchored by the presence of Sephiroth, one of the most iconic villains in video game history.
03:47These themes help give the game a sense of weight and maturity that stood out at the time and still
03:52holds up today.
03:55Technologically, Final Fantasy VII represented a turning point for the industry.
03:59Its use of pre-rendered backgrounds combined with 3D character models
04:03allowed for cinematic camera angles and dramatic storytelling
04:06that console RPGs had never attempted at the scale.
04:10Full motion video cutscenes help sell emotional moments in a way that felt revolutionary in the late 1990s.
04:16For many players, this was the first game that felt truly epic,
04:20not just in length, but in scope and ambition.
04:23It set expectations that would shape the genre for years to come.
04:28What's remarkable is that even with remakes, sequels, spinoffs, and reinterpretations,
04:33the original Final Fantasy VII still stands as the benchmark.
04:37It's the version that introduced Midgar, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Sephiroth to the world,
04:43and it's the version that continues to sell without needing to be reinvented.
04:46The fact that it's still adding hundreds of thousands of sales per year
04:50shows that its legacy isn't purely nostalgic.
04:53New players are still discovering it, still finishing it,
04:57and still talking about it almost three decades after its debut.
05:01If you enjoyed this deep dive into Final Fantasy VII ongoing sales success,
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05:17where the latest exclusive looks at the rise and fall of the Sega Dreamcast,
05:21and what went wrong for one of the most beloved consoles in gaming history.
05:25Until next time, game on.
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