Worldwide sales for Judgment in both digital and physical sales combined have reached over 1 million units sold. Sega announced the news on the official Judgment Twitter account, along with a celebratory Amazon gift card campaign for Japanese fans. Originally released only in Japan in 2018, Judgment found significant success in the west after releasing globally in 2019.
The game is a spin-off of the Yakuza series, developed by the same Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. It follows a former attorney named Takayuki Yagami who works as a private detective in the gritty Kamurocho district. In true Yakuza fashion, Yagami must deal with Yakuza and other underground organizations to solve a series of murders, and also battle enemies in “Hollywood-worthy combat sequences”.
Judgment recently re-released for next-gen consoles on April 23, 2021, which is what likely led to the series’ resurgence in popularity. The re-release added a 60 fps setting and featured faster loading times as well as all of the DLC from the past version. Unfortunately, unlike most rereleased PS4 titles, owners of the past version did not get a free upgrade.
Additionally, the VP of Sega also revealed previously that the company is looking to do more simultaneous worldwide releases after the success of the Yakuza series abroad. Fortunately, it looks as though the success of Judgment will add even more of a reason to continue doing so. Notably, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi also worked as a writer for Judgment, and was also hailed as “one of the few people capable of making a global hit” at Sega.
A sequel, titled Lost Judgment, is also launching simultaneously worldwide on September 24, 2021. The sequel will add a third combat style, as well as new investigation gadgets, disguises, and methods of infiltration. Lost Judgment will primarily feature the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama, as well as a large cast of prominent Japanese talent and actors.
[Source: Gematsu, Siliconera]
