Shin Megami Tensei 5’s excellent re-release sells 500,000 copies in 3 days, pushing the Atlus JRPG series closer to its more popular spin-off Persona

Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance has sold 500,000 copies in just three days, pushing Atlus’s original JRPG series closer to its popular spin-off series, Persona, regarding overall sales.

Earlier today, Atlus announced that Shin Megami Tensei 5 had sold a grand total of 1.6 million copies between its launch in 2021 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive and its re-release, Vengeance, which landed on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch earlier this week. It turns out that 500,000 copies of the 1.6 million come from Vengeance, meaning the re-release has sold half a million copies in just three days.

Just earlier this year, Persona 3 Reload sold one million copies in one week, meaning that after three days, Vengeance has actually been outpacing the Atlus remake in terms of copies sold. I can’t see Vengeance outselling Persona 3 Reload, personally, but it’s still a great debut.

As of March 2024, the Persona series has sold a grand total of 22 million copies around the world – which includes sales of Persona 3 Reload. Comparatively, Shin Megami Tensei had sold through 19.2 million copies as of October 2022 (thanks, Gematsu), which when folded into the news of Vengeance selling 500,000 copies, likely means the older series is closing in on 20 million total sales. 

Hopefully good news for all involved, then – especially as we near the release of Atlus’ next effort, Metaphor: ReFantazio, later this year.

“It’s definitely harder than Persona”: Shin Megami Tensei lead explains that his new JRPG Metaphor: ReFantazio needed more challenge or else “it won’t feel right.”