Tales of Arise is the fastest selling game in series history

Publication date of the original Japanese article: 2021-09-16 15:53 (JST)
Translated by. Ryuki Ishii

On September 16, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that Tales of Arise has shipped over one million units worldwide (including digital sales) in its first week of release. Making Tales of Arise the fastest selling title in series history. The total worldwide shipments for the Tales of franchise have surpassed 25 million units.

Tales of Arise is the latest title in Bandai Namco’s Tales of series. The setting for the game is the opposing planets of Dahna and Rena. The story revolves around Alphen, a man who has lost his memories and can’t feel pain, and Shionne, a woman who is being hunted by her own people.

The game was developed in Unreal Engine 4 and features anime style graphics blended with a realistic watercolor style used to depict the game’s sprawling maps. The battle system expands on what the series has done so far and gives players a high speed and dynamic action experience.

This is the first game in the series to be released simultaneously worldwide. The game’s success was reported even before its release, as it climbed into Steam’s Global Top Sellers chart and reached the top after it was made available for pre-order (see related article). After its release, the concurrent player count on Steam reached 60,000, surpassing peak concurrent player count of all previous Tales of titles combined.

The game has been well-received by Steam users and has been praised for its massive and epic story, as well as its well-crafted UI and game systems, while maintaining the series’ charm of exhilarating combat and character interactions.

The sales figures for other Tales of titles were also announced on Twitter. Tales of Berseria exceeded two million units and Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition shipped more than 1.5 million units. 2.88 million, if combined with the original Xbox 360/PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia.

Yusuke Tomizawa, the producer for the Tales of series, has stated in past interviews that his goal is to increase the overseas audience and acquire younger generation of players. With this latest hit, it seems like Tomizawa and the team are well on their way to achieving their goal. With the upcoming release of Tales of Luminaria, the Tales of series will continue to expand its global reach.