Final Fantasy: 10 Incredible Statistics You Won't Believe

Despite its name, Final Fantasy has maintained a seat at the table of the most revered franchises in gaming. It has longevity as well as critical and commercial success on its side, transforming from an adventurous 8-bit NES fantasy title full of bugs into a series that, for many people, defines the roleplaying genre. There have been ups and downs, of course, but through adversity, the series has continued to adapt and overcome. 

And, naturally, along the way it's become a treasure trove of interesting trivia. 

Did you know that Mayor Domino and his assistant Hart in FF7 are named so for the Dominos and Pizza Hut chains? Or that the FF's first female lead Terra was originally designed as a man? Or that the core concepts of FF10 were originally developed for a different Square but the concept was repurposed?

More than just this kind of factoids though, Final Fantasy a series of great numbers. Not just the ones on the box, or the almighty 9999 damage of a maxed-out attack, but some truly interesting stats that paint a picture of just how far-reaching and deep the franchise truly is.

With Final Fantasy shifting over 185m units, it falls just outside of the top 10 most successful video game franchises.

Now, the surprising part isn’t Final Fantasy’s individual best-seller. You won’t exactly be shocked to hear that FF7, with all of its ports, sits atop the pile with 14m sales as of 2023 (with Final Fantasy's 15 and 8 claiming the silver and bronze medals respectivelt). Still, despite being top dog, FF7’s 14m units account for just 7.57% of the franchise’s total sales.

Obviously, this is down to just how many games there are contributing to that gigantic 185m. Outside of the sixteen main entries (many of which have sequels to them), there are more spin-offs that your brain can possibly retain: Tactics, World of Final Fantasy, Record Keeper, Chocobo Racing, Crystal Chronicles… and so on.

In fact, it’s Crystal Chronicles that is perhaps the most interesting and one of the more explored subseries in Final Fantasy. The original game debuted for the GameCube and became the 25th best-selling title on the system, therefore arguably deserving of its eventual remaster for Switch and PS4 in 2020.

However, Square likely internally considered this a risk since the game’s sequels have all brought very little return.

In 2007, Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate for DS scooped up merely 66,000 sales. In early 2009, Echoes of Time was released for both DS and Wii and only managed a combined 57,000 units. Later, a second Crystal Chronicles game was released in the same year (for some reason) for the Wii with Crystal Bearers shifting a shocking 39,000 copies.

The Wii might’ve had a huge install base in 2009 in theory but interest in the system had harshly dropped off by this point.

All in all, this brings the Crystal Chronicles series to a total recorded 2.92m sales - which puts it essentially on par with the sales numbers of Final Fantasy VI for the Super Nintendo. Sure, that’s one of the all-time greats but it’s just one game on one system that released in far fewer parts of the world.

With that in consideration, it’s not surprising that the Crystal Chronicles series lay dormant for over a decade.