Fire Emblem: Three Houses is being lauded as one of the best games in the series to date and recent news seems to suggest that consumers in the U.S. are in agreement with this as they have helped the game to triple the launch sales numbers of any previous Fire Emblem game in the first month.
Fire Emblem has had a long and storied history that began with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, a game that proved many critics wrong when it went on to sell 329,087 units, making it the third best selling game to date. From there, Intelligent Systems would struggle as sales of Fire Emblem would decline in Japan and it would fail to capture the interest of the West.
On the verge of ending the franchise, Intelligent Systems got a much-needed boost with Fire Emblem: Awakening, a game that sold 81 percent of its initial shipment inside of Japan and became the best-selling title in North America, with 390,000 units sold. When Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released, it immediately got support from critics and became the fastest-selling game within the first week in Japan, selling 143,130 copies and securing the top spot in the UK by selling double that of Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Now, US NPD has reported that it was the second-best-selling game in the month of July and has become the best-selling Fire Emblem game during launch month, tripling the sales of its predecessor.
In a market that is filled with great JRPG's, Intelligent Systems has proven once again that great storylines and gameplay are what drive consumers to purchase such games. If Fire Emblem: Three Houses continues to do well in North America it could change how Japanese companies view the West and could, in turn, cause region-specific titles to be a thing of the past.
News of the recent sales numbers comes via Mat Piscatella, a US video game industry analyst for NPD Group, a firm which provides accurate up to date sales data for games in the U.S. He stated, "It is the largest launch of a Fire Emblem game in U.S. history, with launch month sales tripling those of the previous best-seller in release month, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia." Additionally, in a previous tweet, he stated that "Fire Emblem: Three Houses instantly becomes the 2nd best-selling game in franchise lifetime sales, trailing only Fire Emblem: Awakening.
For the future of Fire Emblem, this recent announcement is certainly a good sign. The fact that it has sold so well in such a short time is also a testament to the hard work that Intelligent Systems has done to ensure that it captures the interest of a wider market.
While it's not clear if the game will surpass the sales of Fire Emblem: Awakening, it's hard to imagine that it won't, given the immense popularity it has around the world. Hopefully, its success will lead to more consistent releases in the future and cause other Japanese companies to focus more on the West.