Persona sells more than Sonic the Hedgehog in leaked Sega sales numbers

Persona 5 Royal key art
A royal flush (Sega)

Sales figures for multiple Sega games have been accidentally revealed, including Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Sonic Frontiers, and Persona 5 Royal.

While some companies like Nintendo and Capcom are pretty open when it comes to revealing sales figures, the majority often cherry pick the success stories to gloss over the cracks.

It’s refreshing then, when a stack of unfiltered statistics are released into the wild – even if it is by accident. This is what has happened with Sega, after sales numbers for a slew of titles were uploaded to Sega Sammy’s investor relations website.

A slide containing a table of sales numbers were found in the document, which has since been taken down from the website. However, not before ResetEra users managed to copy them all down.

You can find a breakdown of the numbers below, but the highest-selling title is Persona 5 Royal at 7.25 million units. This presumably doesn’t include the original version of Persona 5, which surpassed 3.2 million sales by December 2019, so this figure is particularly impressive.

This puts Persona ahead of various Sonic games in terms of sales, with Sonic Frontiers at 4.57 million, Sonic Superstars at 2.43 million, and Team Sonic Racing at 3.5 million. The popularity of the latter explains the existence of the upcoming Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, which is set to launch on September 25, 2025.

The other key takeaway is the sales for various Like A Dragon games. Yakuza: Like A Dragon appears to have surpassed Yakuza 0 as the best-selling title in the series, at 2.86 million units. Its sequel Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth might catch up though, with 1.66 million units sold after only being released in January last year.

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Leaked Sega sales numbers

  • Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth – 1.66 million
  • Like A Dragon: The Man Who Erased His Name – 0.96 million
  • Persona 3 Reload – 2.07 million
  • Sonic Superstars – 2.43 million
  • Sonic Frontiers – 4.57 million
  • Total War: Warhammer III – 2.34 million
  • Shin Megami Tensei V (including Vengeance) – 2.11 million
  • Yakuza: Like A Dragon – 2.86 million
  • Persona 5 Royal (including remaster version) – 7.25 million
  • Team Sonic Racing – 3.5 million
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms – 3.21 million

Elsewhere in the same presentation, Sega announced Metaphor: ReFantazio has surpassed two million copies sold since its release in October.

That figure is even more impressive considering SonicX Shadow Generations, which released later in the same month, racked up only 2.3 million sales – so even a new IP from Atlus is giving Sonic a run for its money.

Although it depends greatly on the game’s budget, 1 million sales is generally considered to be the minimum level needed for a AA game to be considered a hit.

As a point of comparison, Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey has sold 29.28 million copies and Super Mario Bros. Wonder 16.03 million units. Meanwhile, Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 has sold 9.90 million copies and Monster Hunter Rise 17.10 million.

All these will have been bigger budget titles though and so it’s really the profitability that counts or, in the case of Sonic, the merchandise sales – which will be considerable.

According to Metacritic, Sega was the number one rated publisher of last year, thanks to the likes of Metaphor: ReFantazio, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

As for Persona’s future, Atlus recently announced a remake of Persona 4, titled Persona 4 Revival, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Sonic grinding on a rail in Sonic Frontiers
A Sonic Frontiers sequel is inevitable (Sega)

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