Published Mar 4, 2026, 3:43 PM EST
Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
This month, the Resident Evil franchise is celebrating a big milestone, marking 30 years since the dead first rose from the grounds around Spencer Mansion. The original, isolated PlayStation video game was a revolutionary release, not just sparking the rise of the survival horror genre as we know it, but spearheading a wider revival in the interest of zombies years after George A. Romero first popularized the shamblers with his classic Night of the Living Dead. Eight sequels, a bevy of spin-offs, a movie franchise starring Milla Jovovich, and a disastrous television show later, and Capcom’s beloved series is still going strong. A new film is on the way from Zach Cregger, and the latest installment, Resident Evil: Requiem, has just hit store shelves.
Requiem has been one of the most anticipated installments of the series to date, between its release on a key anniversary for the franchise, its status as a sequel to the acclaimed Resident Evil: Village, and the massive marketing push by Capcom. As part of that promotion, the company also confirmed the return of one of the series' most beloved characters, Raccoon City police officer-turned Division of Security Operations agent Leon S. Kennedy (Nick Apostolides), in his fourth mainline game as a playable protagonist. So far, it's lived up to all expectations, earning wildly positive reviews from critics and fans alike, with a stellar 89 score on Metacritic and a user score of 9.5. Saleswise, the news may be even better, though.
A press release confirmed this morning that the ninth installment has already sold a staggering 5 million copies in just five days, which, so far, appears to be a record for the franchise. Requiem has verifiably reached the milestone faster than Village and both the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 remakes, the last two releases to star Leon. In a further indication of its popularity, the game has reached a peak of 344,000 concurrent players on Steam, another high watermark for the series. It's another massive win for Capcom and Resident Evil in general, continuing a hot streak for the series stemming back to the franchise-reviving smash hit Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
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