Over the weekend, Sega accidentally leaked sales figures for a number of its key franchises, revealing – among others – the sales of its open zone game Sonic Frontiers.
The numbers were accidentally included on the company’s latest fiscal report and have since been swiftly removed, but not before fans shared the numbers on ResetEra.
Total sales of Sonic Frontiers were 4.57m, while Sonic Superstars was 2.43m, and Team Sonic Racing was 3.5m. Meanwhile, as officially revealed by the company, Sonic X Shadow Generations sold 2.3m units.
Elsewhere in the leak, Persona 5 Royal has sold 7.25m units – as expected – while Persona 3 Reload just 2.07m units. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth sold 1.66m units, and Like A Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name just 960,000.
Sega also officially revealed Metaphor: ReFantazio sold 2m units.
The company critically had a great year in 2024. Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was well received by series fans, Metaphor: ReFantazio was an outstanding new RPG, and Sonic X Shadow Generations was one of the best-reviewed Sonic games in recent memory. But this reception seemingly hasn’t translated to strong sales.
Still, the figure for Sonic Frontiers does stand out. Released back in 2022, it proves the game has had a long sales tail – even if that’s been spurred on by discounts. And, as the pre-eminent 3D game in the series, its sales have continued alongside both the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3 films.
Back in November 2022, Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka stated Sonic Frontiers’ open zone design was the “cornerstone of future Sonic games”. There will be high hopes, then, for its presumed sequel.
Sonic Frontiers established the “open zone” design (rather than open world), which emphasised exploration as well as speed and took advantage of current hardware technology (despite its egregious pop-in).
Sonic Superstars, released a year later, has just over half the sales of Sonic Frontiers. A 2D game, it perhaps didn’t sit well with fans after the forward-thinking Frontiers.
As for Sonic X Shadow Generations, it has sold well since its release last year, spurred on by the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 film. However, it’s still a remake of an older game. And it seems, as much as Sega trades in nostalgia, it’s the open zone advancement in design that fans have responded to with their wallets.
The fact Team Sonic Racing has outsold more traditional platformers also bodes well for the forthcoming Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds.
In short, Team Sonic is heading in the right direction, and expectations will be high for the original game that follows Sonic Frontiers.
As Eurogamer’s Alex Donaldson discussed with Iizuka recently, Sonic has gone from “fighting to survive” to a global megastar in the past 10 years.
“When I moved over from Tokyo to Los Angeles, it was like an ‘oh my god’ moment,” Iizuka said. “Like, we need to save the brand, or this brand isn’t going to be around for much longer.”
