A majority of Yakuza games to date have been released primarily in Japan, with some of the titles in the series releasing outside Japanese borders months later, ala Yakuza 3. However, the series remains strong in the west with Sega’s brawler gathering impressive sales figures. Sega have now announced the shipment figures for the series since its introduction in 2005.
An accumulative of 4 million copies of the Yakuza games within the long-running PlayStation franchise has been shipped worldwide. The first game in the series which made its debut on the PlayStation 2 and racked up 21 million dollars is the most shipped title in the series. The latest title, Yakuza 4 which released last week, has already shipped 500,000 copies to Japanese retailers.
The Japanese gangster-oriented franchise began in 2005. Since then, there has been a total of four Yakuza games so far. Yakuza 4 released in Japan recently this month, whilst its predecessor launched in the west. Yakuza 5 has already been hinted at, despite Yakuza 4 releasing last week.
Be sure to visit PlayStation LifeStyle’s review of the third installment in the series.
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