Dragon Quest Surpasses 100 Million Sales: Square Enix Confirms Milestone for JRPG Franchise

Square Enix has announced that the Dragon Quest franchise has surpassed 100 million games sold worldwide, a milestone calculated from cumulative package shipments and digital sales. The long-running JRPG series, which began with the original Dragon Quest release in Japan in 1986, marks its 40th anniversary in 2026 while continuing to expand across platforms and media. Since its 1986 debut, Dragon Quest has grown into one of the most influential Japanese role-playing game franchises. Square Enix emphasized the franchise’s breadth — 11 mainline titles, numerous spin-offs, and extensions into films, anime, novels, manga and merchandise — and highlighted the series’ role in shaping player-friendly RPG design, memorable characters and soundtrack-driven presentation. Square Enix also underscored recent redevelopment efforts that have modernized classic entries. The company noted that the HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest 3 and Dragon Quest 1 & 2 together retell the Erdrick Trilogy with updated story content and gameplay adjustments in the signature HD-2D aesthetic. In early 2026, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined arrived as a full remake of the 2000 title Dragon Quest 7: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, converting Akira Toriyama’s character designs into a handcrafted 3D style with diorama-inspired environments, streamlined exploration and expanded narrative elements. Looking at current and upcoming releases, Square Enix pointed to several entries across Nintendo platforms. Dragon Quest 11 S: Echoes of an Elusive Age is scheduled to arrive on Nintendo Switch 2 on Sept. 24, and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is set to launch on Dec. 3, 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam. The publisher also recently released Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon Classic HD for modern platforms. To mark the sales milestone and the series’ four decades, Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii shared a special message to fans reflecting on the franchise’s history and continuing projects. This announcement reinforces Dragon Quest’s continued commercial and cultural relevance as Square Enix prepares new mainline and spin-off projects, including Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams, currently in development. For players who use Nintendo platforms and the Nintendo eShop, the franchise’s mix of remakes and next-generation releases keeps Dragon Quest highly visible across both Nintendo Switch and the newer Nintendo Switch 2 hardware.