Player engagement with Resident Evil games jumped 50% in the run up to and following the release of Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie, according to data shared exclusively with GamesIndustry.biz.
Sensor Tower looked at five Resident Evil titles across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, including Requiem, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, Village, and Biohazard.
Daily active users (DAU) jumped 50% from 500,000 on August 30 to 750,000 on September 20. All five games saw increased engagement. Daily unit sales grew from 34,000 to nearly 80,000 over the same period.
Looking at the overall Resident Evil franchise, Ampere Analysis found that DAU grew from 140,000 to 680,000 over the course of two weekends from September 6 to September 20. Cregger’s film premiered on September 18.
There were 540,000 players across the Resident Evil franchise on Sunday, September 6, which increased 11% to 600,000 the Sunday following. DAU increased a further 13% to 680,000 on the Sunday after the movie was released. Ampere’s data covered 45 countries on PS, 32 countries on Xbox, and 41 countries on Steam.
According to data from Newzoo, which was sourced from 37 markets excluding China, DAU across PC, PS, and Xbox averaged 72% higher than late-summer baselines five days following the film’s release in most markets (September 16–18), reaching a peak of 282,526 on Sunday, September 20.
Karl Kontus, SVP and general manager of Video Game Insights at Sensor Tower, notes that while these increases are significant, they start from a relatively low base
“If we take a longer time frame view (last 12 months), these relative increases in DAU and unit sales from the movie’s launch are very very small compared to the portfolio’s overall performance,” Kontus explains. “In fact, if you’re looking at the cumulative units sold for Resident Evil Requiem, the movie launch’s impact barely affects the game’s overall performance.”
“The transmedia impact is clearly and measurably affecting game performance by increasing units sold and daily active users. We see this with Resident Evil as well as The Last of Us and Fallout,” he continues. “However, this impact is typically very small in the context of the overall game’s performance – a single-digit percentage uplift to units and revenue.
Ampere Analysis’ Piers Harding-Rolls agrees: “The Resident Evil movie has had a sizable positive impact on activity and sales of Resident Evil games across consoles and PC. However, while growth has been noteworthy, the actual volumes involved are small. With an estimated 6 million+ tickets for the movie being sold, the impact has been relatively minor in that context.”
“The benefit of these transmedia initiatives isn’t the short-term increase in game sales. It’s IP and brand building. Staying relevant in the players’ and watchers’ minds. It guarantees that future game launches will remain successful.”
Discounts also heavily influenced engagement metrics. Capcom cut prices across the series from September 8 on Steam and September 10 on consoles, which lifted DAUs by 21% prior to the film’s release.
Harding-Rolls also highlights that there was a 30% discount on Requiem across platforms from September 7 to coincide with the film launch. However, “in volume terms the impact on sales [on Requiem] has been relatively lightweight.”
“This recent discount follows another reduction that took place in late May and early June, which is likely to have reduced the impact during this second discounting campaign.”
Newzoo’s data found that engagement across the Resident Evil franchise rose “sharply” during the film’s opening weekend, driven primarily by Resident Evil 2.
Emmanuel Rosier, director of marketing intelligence at Newzoo, says Resident Evil 2 attracted players because it “was the cheapest way in” to the franchise at $7.99, a sixth of the discounted price. “The pattern suggests the film sends players to the entry point that matches what they just watched, rather than to the newest game.”
Rosier adds that Resident Evil 2 saw the most activity because the film shares its setting. “The film’s director, Zach Cregger, has described the film as a story running in parallel to Raccoon City’s outbreak, the setting of Resident Evil 2, and that is where the game players went back to. Its DAU came close to five times baseline after release, up from under twice baseline during the price cut, and rose on all three platforms at once.”
That’s in contrast to Sensor Tower’s data, which demonstrated that Resident Evil 4 and Requiem had much more of an effect on engagement than Resident Evil 2.
Rosier noted that Resident Evil 2’s engagement rate closely followed the DAU pattern of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in July, with one key difference.
“Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey opened on July 17, and a PlayStation-only discount followed on July 25,” said Rosier. “This time, the discounts came first, on Steam from September 8 and on PlayStation and Xbox from September 10, and the film followed eight to 10 days later. The 38% jump from September 18 to 19 came on top of prices that were already cut.”
Reviewing engagement increases for both Odyssey and Resident Evil 2, Rosier notes that “the game closest to the film moves most,” which then lifts the broader franchise.
“Odyssey, set in ancient Greece, rose far more than the rest of the Assassin’s Creed catalogue. Resident Evil 2, set during the Raccoon City outbreak that Cregger’s story runs in parallel to, rose to nearly five times its baseline, well ahead of Requiem, the newest release. Other Assassin’s Creed titles rose about 1.4 times from the film’s opening, while the Resident Evil franchise total rose 72% after release.”