Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth devs are surprised that the game is selling so well

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is selling well, so well in fact that the devs didn’t think it would succeed this quickly. While the devs did have confidence in this sequel, even they were surprised to see just how many copies the game has already sold.

Masayoshi Yokoyama, the director of developer RGG Studio, spoke with 4Gamer (via Automaton) and talked about the game’s surprising success. Yokoyama feels that the Yakuza games tend to sell well after a while, usually by word of mouth, but Infinite Wealth was selling well on its first day available.

“We gave a press release about how [Infinite Wealth] sold over one million copies worldwide in one week following its release, but it’s really a speed we have never experienced before,” Yokoyama explains. “Like a Dragon games sell in the long run, rather than right off the bat. This has been the case ever since the series’ early days. It has an adult player base, after all, so there’s no rush, you know?”

There was a time when the Yakuza games were pretty niche to a worldwide audience, so seeing Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sell a million copies right away is impressive. Granted, Infinite Wealth is an excellent game, but so were the previous Yakuza games and they didn’t tend to sell this quickly.

It does help that we’re currently in a new era for the Yakuza series, as the franchise has now switched from beat-em-up action to being a turn-based JRPG. This started with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the proper fresh start for this series which introduced fans to a new protagonist: Ichiban Kasuga. Yakuza’s previous protagonist, Kazuma Kiryu, is still around and did get one more game in Like a Dragon: Gaiden, but the torch has been passed.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is readily available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC. Fans interested in this unique JRPG should pick up Yakuza: Like a Dragon, just to see where Ichiban’s story starts.