Nioh 3 Hits 1M Sales Fastest in Series as Franchise Passes 10M Units Worldwide

KOEI TECMO and TEAM NINJA announced this morning that Nioh 3 has already sold 1M copies, making it the fastest selling entry in the action RPG series to date, while the broader Nioh franchise has now reached 10M units sold worldwide. For a series that has steadily built momentum across multiple releases, this is a major commercial milestone, and it reinforces what many players have already been signaling through early engagement trends: Nioh 3 is landing bigger, faster, and louder than its predecessors.

From a design and positioning perspective, Nioh 3 reads like the culmination of Team NINJA’s long arc of iteration. The game blends the exploratory freedom of an open field structure with a deep dual style combat system that intentionally bridges masocore intensity and character action expressiveness. That hybrid identity is a smart strategic move because it widens the skill ceiling without flattening the difficulty curve that long time fans expect. It also gives the game a unique lane in the action RPG market where combat readability, mechanical mastery, and build depth can coexist with more modern exploration pacing.

That said, the launch is not without friction. Performance issues remain the most common drawback, and while that is disappointing, it is also consistent with what players have historically seen from KOEI TECMO and TEAM NINJA PC and console releases. The real business risk is not the existence of issues, but how quickly the teams can stabilize performance across the broadest range of systems and scenarios. With Nioh 3 now clearly scaling to a larger audience, post launch optimization becomes more than a technical task. It becomes a retention lever that determines whether this momentum converts into long tail sales, strong reviews, and a healthier community.

If the studio can tighten performance and preserve the combat feel that is driving the current hype cycle, Nioh 3 is positioned not just as the biggest launch in franchise history, but as the entry that could define the series reputation for the next generation of action RPG players.

Do you think Nioh 3’s open field structure and dual style combat is the right evolution for the series, or would you rather Team NINJA return to a more tightly structured progression even if it costs some exploration freedom?