Resident Evil Movie Boosted The Game Series Sales on PS5

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie pushed more people to buy the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 remakes on PS5 after it opened in cinemas on 18 September, according to estimates from Alinea Analytics. Those purchases happened while Capcom had both games at 75% to 80% off, so the extra copies linked to the film sold for roughly US$8 to US$13 each.

Capcom started cutting prices on 10 September, eight days before the film’s release, which let Alinea’s Rhys Elliott measure the film’s pull separately from the discount’s. With the discount’s effect stripped out, Resident Evil 2 sold an estimated 64% more PS5 copies and Resident Evil 4 sold 54% more. On Steam, the film’s effect was far smaller, at 11% for Resident Evil 2 and 14% for Resident Evil 4.

How the Movie’s Effect Was Separated from Capcom’s Sale

The discount did the first round of work alone. Before the film reached cinemas, it roughly doubled daily PS5 copies of each of the three games Alinea broke out:

Elliott then compared daily sales from 10 to 17 September, when the games were discounted but the film wasn’t out, with 19 to 24 September, when the film was in cinemas and PS5 prices hadn’t changed. After allowing for how Capcom’s earlier discounts have behaved, he counts whatever lift is left in the second window as the film’s.

That setup also caps what the figures can show. The film’s effect was only ever measured against a US$7.99 or US$9.99 price tag, so for Resident Evil 2 and 4, the data can’t say how many people would have paid US$39.99 because of the movie.

Where the Extra Copies Sold and What They Earned

PlayStation took almost all of the change in copies. In raw terms, which include the discount’s effect, Resident Evil 2’s PS5 copies nearly doubled in the week after release compared with the two weeks before, while its Steam copies rose 16%. Resident Evil 4 climbed 77% on PS5 and stayed flat on Steam, where prices went back to full on 21 September. For Sony, whose PlayStation Productions arm co-produced the film, that put nearly all of the extra sales on its own platform.

PS5 revenue rose 80% for Resident Evil 2 and 84% for Resident Evil 4, but those gains were built on US$7.99 and US$9.99 copies. Steam’s revenue held up better than its copy counts because of that price reset, with each copy earning more than it had during the sale.

Elliott described the result as “slightly-boosted bargain-bin volume, not a demand surge at full price.” In his view, Capcom doesn’t need a film to sell its older games, because the studio already discounts its back catalogue in stages to reach buyers at every price, and the movie added a little extra interest on top of that system.

Daily Player Counts Across the Resident Evil Catalogue

Resident Evil 2 added about 38,000 daily players in the week from 18 September, a 48% rise and the largest percentage jump of any Resident Evil game Alinea tracks. It’s also the game closest to the film’s setting, since it takes place in Raccoon City during the outbreak. Every other tracked game rose too:

The Resident Evil 4 remake’s smaller percentage hides the biggest jump in real numbers, roughly 48,000 extra daily players, much of it from US$10 fire sales on Steam. Even the Resident Evil 3 remake, the least well received of the series’ recent run, gained a quarter more players.

Added together, the four games went from about 423,000 daily players to about 541,000, an increase of roughly 118,000, though the same person can count in more than one game.

Elliott reads the pattern as the film reactivating existing fans more than finding new ones: engagement rose across the whole catalogue, while new sales barely moved once the discounts were accounted for. We’d treat that as the film’s real contribution. A US$7.99 copy adds little to Capcom’s revenue, but tens of thousands of fans back in games they already owned are likely the most receptive audience the next Resident Evil release will have.

Resident Evil Requiem’s US$500 Million Milestone and PS5 Revenue Dip

Only one game in Capcom’s sale was still priced anywhere near full: Resident Evil Requiem, at US$48.99 on PS5. That makes it the closest thing in the data to a full-price test of the film.

Requiem passed US$500 million in lifetime revenue faster than any other Resident Evil game, according to Alinea, which expects it to overtake the Resident Evil 4 remake’s total of more than US$600 million. Since launching at the end of February, it has reached an estimated 8.5 million players, with PlayStation its biggest platform at 48.1% and Steam close behind at 43.4%. Of the more than 4 million PS5 copies, 30.8%, or about 1.2 million, are physical. Capcom sold a record number of games in its last financial year and is targeting more this year.

Requiem’s Steam revenue rose 14%, but only because the price there went back to full. On PS5, Requiem sold more copies, which Elliott puts down to the discount, and a discount means less money per sale. So during the film’s US$108.3 million worldwide opening weekend, the biggest in the 24-year history of Resident Evil films, Requiem’s daily PS5 revenue fell about 4%, from roughly US$284,000 to US$271,000.

Why the Movie Didn’t Sell More Games, and Where Resident Evil Veronica Fits

Elliott’s main explanation is that the film gives curious viewers nowhere obvious to go next. Cregger built an original story around a new lead, a medical courier crossing Raccoon City during the outbreak, and none of the games’ protagonists front the film. Fans get plenty of easter eggs, but a newcomer finishes it without a character they can pick up in a game.

Adaptations that did send viewers to the games had that link. The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us retold the first game closely, leaving viewers wanting the next chapter, while Amazon’s Fallout funnelled people into a deep catalogue set in the same distinctive world. The Super Mario Bros. Movie and the Spider-Man films had the same pull, with an extra push from younger fans.

Elliott also points to who was in the cinema. Horror film fans and horror game fans overlap heavily, so the film largely played to people already in the games’ audience, and Cregger is a draw in his own right after Barbarian and 2025’s Weapons, which made US$270 million worldwide. The film has the reviews to match, holding a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score a week after release, the highest of any horror film this year at that point.

Elliott sees a better bridge in Resident Evil Veronica, Capcom’s remake of 2000’s Code: Veronica and the first full Resident Evil remake since Resident Evil 4 in 2023. It’s due in 2027 with close to 2 million Steam wishlists already, and it stars Claire Redfield, a character casual fans will recognise. If it keeps the original’s timeline, it’s set three months after the Raccoon City outbreak the film is built around, and Elliott’s suggestion is to time the film’s streaming release around Veronica’s launch, giving viewers the route from cinema to game that this release didn’t have.