Resident Evil Requiem: Two Heroes, Two Cameras and Capcom's Fastest Seller
Capcom split its ninth Resident Evil between a new first-person heroine and an older Leon in third person, sent them back to Raccoon City and sold 5 million copies in five days. Here is how Requiem became 2026's horror hit.
For years, Resident Evil fans have argued about the camera. The modern games have swung between the claustrophobic first person of Resident Evil 7 and Village and the over-the-shoulder view of the RE2, RE3 and RE4 remakes. Resident Evil Requiem settled the argument by refusing to pick a side.
Capcom's ninth main-series game launched on February 27, 2026 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. It has two playable leads: FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, played in first person by default, and DSO agent Leon S. Kennedy, played in third person. Either can be switched to the other view.
The result is the fastest-selling Resident Evil ever: 5 million copies in five days, and more than 7 million by April 24, 2026.
Back to Raccoon City
Requiem is set in October 2026, 28 years after the destruction of Raccoon City, the series' most famous location. The story moves through the Wrenwood Hotel, the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, the ruins of Raccoon City itself and a facility called ARK.
Director Koshi Nakanishi, who also directed Resident Evil 7, led the project with producers Masachika Kawata and Masato Kumazawa. The English script was written by Haris Orkin, who spent two and a half years on it. The game runs on Capcom's RE Engine.
Two kinds of horror
Splitting the game between two characters lets Capcom do two different things. Grace's sections lean on vulnerability and dread, in the tradition of RE7. Leon's are closer to the action-horror of the RE4 remake. Critics praised how the halves play off each other.
Reviews were the best for the series in years. Metacritic scores range from 89 on PS5 to 90 on Switch 2, 92 on PC and 93 on Xbox Series X|S, all in the "universal acclaim" band, and 96% of critics on OpenCritic recommend it. Game Informer gave it 9.75, Destructoid 9.5, IGN 9, and Nintendo Life 9/10 for the Switch 2 version. Its OpenCritic score has hovered around 89 to 90, keeping it near the top of 2026's charts all year.
Sales and Steam records
The numbers are extraordinary even by Capcom's recent standards:
- 5 million copies in five days, the fastest in Resident Evil history
- 6 million by March 16, 2026, at the time the best-selling game of 2026
- 7 million+ by April 24, 2026
- 344,214 players on Steam over launch weekend, double the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake
In the UK, it topped the physical sales chart with a platform split of 54% PS5, 36% PC, 6% Xbox and 4% Switch 2.
Switch 2, and some odd collaborations
The Switch 2 version is a technical curiosity. It renders internally at about 360p in handheld mode and 540p docked, then uses Nvidia's DLSS to upscale to 720p and 1080p while targeting 60 frames per second. On PC, path tracing is limited to Nvidia graphics cards.
Capcom also leaned into brand partnerships: a custom Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT, special Hamilton watches for Leon and Grace announced on January 15, 2026, and a Grace skin in Fortnite on March 1 for players who bought the game through the Epic Games Store.
Why it matters
Requiem was the first big release of 2026 and set the bar for the year. It also kicked off Capcom's remarkable run, followed by Monster Hunter Stories 3, Pragmata and Onimusha: Way of the Sword, all scoring 85 or above on OpenCritic.
WGC's take: this is Resident Evil at its most confident, a game that knows exactly what both halves of its fanbase want and delivers both. Play it with headphones, and give Grace's chapters your full attention. For the rest of 2026's best games, read our 2026 AAA year so far.