Image: Japanese Fatal Frame sales comparison

NE:
"Blue bars represent Japanese sales debuts of the various Fatal Frame games. Combining the blue and red bars represents lifetime sales.

All things considered, Fatal Frame: The Black Haired Shrine Maiden’s debut wasn’t too terrible. It sold more than the last two games for Wii – a console with a much higher install base. "

[benji101]

selling the best since the PS2 era. And people think Bayonetta sold badly in Japan.. Japanese devs and most of the publishers (apart from capcom and Square enix) dont blow money on huge marketing campaigns.

[Concertoine]

Its quite incredible that the series can progress with such weak sales...

I find it funny that the indie tribute to this series "Dreadout" is ten times more known and popular than its inspiration. What Nintendo needs to do is release this in the west and get the youtube personalities that make obscure horror games sell and have them advertise the game, by playing it.

[Pozzle]

I gotta admit, I was surprised at how low Fatal Frame's sales were. I knew it was a niche series, but I always assumed the sales were at least a bit higher than that.

Still, I hope FF5 makes it to the West...even if it's only a digital release. I think the game has potential to do well if it actually gets some decent marketing and some hype from game sites (which the other games didn't really get).