Dragon Quest 3 Remake is already a huge sales success

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Key recommendations

  • Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake sold 821,770 physical copies in its first week in Japan, becoming the country's best-selling game of 2024.
  • This was the biggest game release in Japan since The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023.
  • HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest 1 and 2 will be released in 2025.



The Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake sold over 800,000 physical copies in its first week in Japan, split between Switch and PS5. This achievement does Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake the best-selling game in the country in 2024, solidifying the game's enduring popularity Dragon Quest brand in Japan.

The remake is a faithful recreation of the classic Dragon Quest 3originally released in 1988. Using Square Enix's HD-2D graphics engine, the game modernizes its visuals while retaining many of the original features along with some quality of life improvements. Square Enix has produced HD-2D remakes of several classic RPGs, suggesting that the formula has been a winning one for the developer. In addition to Dragon Quest 3 Remakethe company has confirmed the development of HD-2D remakes for Dragon Quest 1 and 2with releases planned for 2025. Together, these games form the token The Erdrick Trilogy.


Talking to the Fairy Queen and chasing monsters in Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake

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Judging by the reception of Japanese fans, the remakes of the first three Dragon Quest games is shaping up to be a home run for Square Enix. In the week of release a Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D RemakeFamitsu reported sales of 821,770 physical copies. An estimated 641,195 of those were on Nintendo Switch, while 180,575 were on PS5. This landmark highlights both power Dragon Quest brand in Japan and Switch's continued dominance in the region. All signs point to the future Dragon Quest remakes being similar sales.


Dragon Quest sold nearly 1 million physical copies upon release in Japan

It is worth noting that these figures only represent physical sales of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remakeexcluding any Steam version numbers. Famitsu noted that this was the game's most significant release in Japan since then The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in 2023. In addition, Dragon Quest 3 was Square Enix's biggest hit in Japan since then Dragon Quest XIreleased in 2017. The latter sold 2 million copies in the first two days of release. We can only imagine the impact already announced Dragon Quest 12: Flames of Fate will have upon release.


Unsurprisingly, a deal has been made between the Japanese government and Nintendo in the past for the release Dragon Quest games exclusively on Sundays as fans skipped school and worked to immerse themselves in the RPG phenomenon. Although this arrangement no longer applies today, it underscores how culturally significant the franchise is in Japan. With this remarkable success, fans are speculating about Square Enix's next steps for the future Dragon Quest. The next main entrance, Dragon Quest 12was announced in 2021, but aside from a few brief updates from series creator Yuji Horii, nothing else has been revealed.

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