Persona 5 Officially Launched Ten Years Ago Today

Today Officially Marks Ten Years Since The Release Of Persona 5 Published Sep 1, 2026, 9:01 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. Ten years ago today, Persona 5, the best Persona game in many's opinion, was released in Japan. It drastically changed the course of the franchise and, when combined with the Megami Tensei games, is now the second-best-selling series in Sega's history, behind Sonic the Hedgehog. Ten years is an awful long time, and we're already at the longest gap between mainline Persona games in history, with Persona 6 expected to release next year. But as Persona 5 is a top-three all-time game for me, I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate it (whilst also complaining about the wait for 6). Until Persona 5, the Persona series was relatively niche. Limited to releases on the PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS Vita, only one iteration had broken the million sales barrier: the Vita version of Persona 4 Golden. It was, however, a sign of things to come. Four years after Golden's release, Persona 5 dropped in Japan, selling roughly two million copies. A few months later, on April 4, the game was released in the West, and over the past 10 years, when combined with Royal, has sold almost 12 million copies. It elevated the series from having a niche fanbase into the mainstream and spawned a bunch of spin-offs. Atlus had certainly tried to capitalize on Persona 4 with the releases of Arena, which itself sold 1.5 million units, and Dancing All Night, but it wasn't until Persona 5 that these became a major focus. Since 2016, excluding Royal, Persona 5 has received five spin-offs: Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, Persona 5 Strikers, a Dynasty Warriors-style Musou game, Persona 5 Tactica, a turn-based tactics title, and Persona 5: The Phantom X, a mobile gacha game. The company even went back to Persona 3 following Persona 5's release, launching a brand-new spin-off, Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night, and is now also branching into trading cards. The newfound popularity of the Persona series, sparked by Persona 5, also nudged Atlus to dip into its back catalog. In 2024, it released Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the third game. This title sold three million copies, more than double the number every single prior version of the game had achieved combined, including the Steam and PS4 re-releases. In just a few months, it will be doing the same with Persona 4 and Revival, a game that is right at the top of my most-anticipated list. Numerous spin-offs and remakes show how far the game has come and are brilliant for the franchise, but it sure feels like it's slowed down the release of the recently revealed Persona 6. Now, I appreciate that games are taking longer to make these days; look at Grand Theft Auto 6, but ten years is an awful long time, and it is significantly longer than any gap between mainline Persona games. There were three years between Persona and Persona 2, seven years between Persona 2 and Persona 3, only two between 3 and 4, and then eight between Persona 4 and Persona 5. While the long wait for Persona 6 is finally coming to an end, it'll likely be at least 11 years between it and Persona 5. I've waited this long already; another year won't hurt, and I'm eternally grateful for just how good the Persona series is, but I'd be lying if I said the wait has been easy. Released March 31, 2020 ESRB M for Mature: Blood, Drug Reference, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence Developer(s) Atlus, P-Studio Publisher(s) Atlus Engine Proprietary Engine Genre(s) JRPG