Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fourth top-selling US game this year, but reportedly remains far behind Remake

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the fourth top-selling game in the US so far this year, behind the likes of Helldivers 2 and Dragon's Dogma 2.

That's according to sales tracking from numbers company Circana. Helldivers 2 takes the top spot, which isn't too surprising considering its massive success - it reportedly sold over 8m copies in its first month and was PlayStation's biggest launch on Steam.

Dragon's Dogma 2, meanwhile, has "performed favourably" according to Capcom, leading to a boost in the company's expected profits. It sold 2.5m copies in under two weeks.

With Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, however, its exact sales are yet to be announced by Square Enix, which has led to plenty of speculation as to how well it's sold.

But while its sales numbers aren't public, even its place in the chart behind two lower-budget, niche hits is surprising (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 unsurprisingly is in second place behind Helldivers 2).

Last month, industry analyst Daniel Ahmad claimed Rebirth had sold "about half" the sales of its predecessor Remake and was said to be "underperforming sales-wise".

Now, analyst Mat Piscatella has offered some further context on Rebirth's sales. It might be the fourth best-selling game in the US this year, but it's 14th in lifetime sales for all Final Fantasy games in the US.

Further, its sales are "down by a double-digit percentage when compared to Remake over the same period", Piscatella told Game File. What's more, Rebirth's sales are also down a double-digit percentage compared to Final Fantasy 16, which Square Enix described as "extremely strong".

So while one popular theory among fans is that Remake launched on PS4 to a higher install base than Rebirth on PS5, Rebirth still hasn't outsold the similarly PS5-exclusive Final Fantasy 16.

There's more to Rebirth's under-performance, then, likely due to this being the second part of an ongoing remake saga. That's difficult for Square Enix to market - not to mention the fact Remake didn't sit well with all fans of the original.

Of course, we won't know the full extent of the situation until Square Enix itself provides sales figures. And while there are lofty ideas already in place for the third game in the trilogy, perhaps expectations will be lowered for the finale following the diminishing returns of Rebirth.

Despite sales, Rebirth was a critical success, with much praise for its open world design, sense of humour, and myriad minigames. We described it as "an overstuffed but lovable re-imagining" in our Eurogamer Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review, although its ending has proven controversial.

Earlier this week, Square Enix announced it had abandoned £112m of in-development projects in an effort to improve quality. Company president Takashi Kiryu is streamlining the company's output of games to improve quality. Let's hope the remaining projects will resonate with fans as much as critics.