Soul Calibur 6 crosses 2 million copies sold, new season of Online Challenge events coming later this year
The storied Soul Calibur franchise's future looked a bit grim after Soul Calibur 5 failed to live up to the expectations of fans and Bandai Namco, so the latest game was a bit of a gamble, which has apparently paid off.
During the European finals of its Evo side tournament series, Soul Calibur 6 was revealed to have sold over 2 million copies worldwide alongside the announcement that the Soul Calibur Online Challenge will be returning in 2021.
This is the first time Bandai Namco has ever publicly spoken on SC6's sales numbers, so it's level of success remained something of a question among fans.
The only mention made of the game's performance came back in the company's first financial report following its release where Bandai Namco noted it saw a "steady / favorable launch in global sales."
Since Soul Calibur 6 first hit shelves in October of 2018, it means the fighting game reached 2 million in just under three years on the market, which puts it far behind the pace of Bandai Namco's other big titles this generation with Tekken 7 and Dragon Ball FighterZ.
These numbers do, however, put SC6 up there with the best-selling titles in the series as far as the figures that have been revealed with Soul Calibur 4 reaching 2.3 million in eight months after release while Soul Calibur 2 also sold at least 2 million.
Soul Calibur 5 managed to push 1.38 million copies in its first six months back in 2012 though it may have ended up in the 2–3 million range considering the series sales were said to be at 13 million units after SC5's release and 15 million before SC6.
This may not sound like the greatest news for those hoping for the series to continue in the future, but we have to remember Bandai Namco had more ways to make money from the title via DLC support.
The game clearly did well enough to earn itself at least two seasons of support, especially when Bandai Namco said they originally only planned to give it one season previously.
Soul Calibur Online Challenge will be coming later this year featuring five regions split between North America West, NA East, Europe West, Southeast Asia and Japan.
Similarly to Tekken, Dojo community-run events will also be included in the circuit running from now until December 27.
Further information about events and rules will be found on the Online Challenge's website.
The future of Soul Calibur still remains something of a question mark, but it's a good sign that Bandai Namco is still continuing to support the game and announce these numbers at all.
