The Metal Gear series has collectively sold nearly 60 million copies globally, according to updated sales numbers via Metal Gear Informer. In total, 58.3 million copies across the series’ long history has been sold, with 300,000 being sold between December 2021 and March 2022 alone. This makes it the second best-selling Konami series, inched out by eFootball (formerly PES) lifetime sales which surpassed 112 million copies sold.
In November last year, Konami removed several Metal Gear games from digital storefronts due to licensing issues. As of writing, the games are still missing with no updates from Konami. However, the company did state in a previous official statement that it was actively working on getting them back on sale digitally.
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Despite the removal, the franchise still manages to sell relatively well, be it from physical or digital sales for those games that didn’t get removed. The last entry in the series, Metal Gear Survive, only managed to sell around 52,000 copies as of January 2019. Konami has shied away from providing updated sales figures for the game.
The popular stealth-action series has since gone dormant ever since creator Hideo Kojima parted ways with Konami, making Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain the last mainline game in the franchise. Kojima has remained with his independent studio, Kojima Productions, previously partnering with Sony on Death Stranding.
In related news, Konami might be attempting a massive revival of their popular horror IP, Silent Hill. According to recent reports, three new Silent Hill games are rumoured to be in development. These include Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, a new mainline entry (which some suspect might be in the works at Kojima Productions) and an episodic title possibly handled by Annapurna.
There’s no word yet on if the Metal Gear series will ever return to the spotlight as Konami seems perfectly okay with it staying dormant. Perhaps a similar revival to Silent Hill is in order.
Source: Metal Gear Informer