The best-selling Resident Evil game isn't a new one. According to Capcom's own Platinum Titles list, the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 had sold 19.70 million units as of June 30, 2026. That's more than any other game in the series, and second on Capcom's entire list, behind only Monster Hunter: World (22.40 million, or 30.40 million counting Iceborne Master Edition).
The original Resident Evil 2, released on PlayStation in January 1998, sits on the same list at 4.96 million units. The remake has sold roughly four times as many copies as the game it remade, and it got past the original fast. VGC reported in December 2019 that Capcom said the remake had passed five million units as of December 4 that year, overtaking the original's lifetime total in under a year.
The pattern, and the exception
Resident Evil 2 isn't a one-off. Line the modern remakes up against the originals on Capcom's list and the gap is huge:
- Resident Evil 3 (April 2020 remake): 14.50 million units. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis (PlayStation, September 1999): 3.50 million.
- Resident Evil 4 (March 2023 remake): 16.00 million units. The original Resident Evil 4 appears on the list as several separate releases: GameCube in January 2005 (1.60 million), PlayStation 2 in December 2005 (2.30 million), the Ultimate HD Edition on PC in February 2014 (3.70 million), PS4 and Xbox One in August 2016 (3.70 million), and smaller digital and Switch releases. None of those versions, on its own, passes 3.70 million.
There's one remake that breaks the rule, and it's the oldest. The first Resident Evil (PlayStation, March 1996) is listed at 2.75 million units. Its 2002 GameCube remake is on the list at 1.35 million, below the original. The list also carries a separate Resident Evil release from November 2014, on PS3 and digital, at 5.70 million. So the modern run of remakes, starting in 2019, is where the numbers really take off.
For comparison, the newer numbered games are huge too. Resident Evil 7 biohazard is at 18.40 million, Resident Evil Village at 15.80 million, and this year's Resident Evil Requiem at 8.00 million. Put it all together and three remakes (2, 4 and 3) sit in Capcom's top eight best-sellers of all time.
Why the gap is so big
Here's the catch, and it's worth knowing before you use this to win an argument. It's not a perfectly level playing field. Capcom's list shows the 1990s originals as PlayStation releases, while the remakes are listed across a long run of platforms, from PS4 and Xbox One to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and digital, with Resident Evil 2 and 3 on Switch as well. My read: more places to buy a game means more chances to sell it.
The other half of the trick is time. In the latest quarter, these remakes were still selling strongly years after launch. Gematsu's breakdown of Capcom's June 2026 update shows the Resident Evil 4 remake added 2.4 million units between March 31 and June 30, 2026 alone, the biggest gain among the Resident Evil titles Gematsu lists for that quarter. Resident Evil 2 added 1.4 million and Resident Evil 3 added 1.2 million over the same three months, for games released in 2019 and 2020.
That's the real fun fact hiding in the spreadsheet. For comparison, Gematsu's figures show Resident Evil Requiem, released this year, adding 1.1 million in the same quarter and Resident Evil 7 adding 1.0 million. On that one quarter of Capcom's numbers, the remakes were keeping pace with the new games.
What the list actually counts
Capcom describes the page as its list of titles that have sold more than one million units, listed by sales volume; this snapshot is current to June 30, 2026. Releases on different platforms and in different editions get their own entries, which is why Resident Evil 4 turns up so many times. So if you're keeping score at home, compare like with like: the 2019 Resident Evil 2 against the 1998 one, not against the whole series.
Next time someone tells you remakes are a safe, small bet for publishers, point them at Capcom's own numbers. The safe bet turned out to be the biggest one in the series.
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