Resident Evil

Resident Evil, known as Biohazard in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other mutated creatures. The franchise has expanded into media including a live-action film series, animated films, television series, comic books, novels, audiobooks, and merchandise. Resident Evil is among the highest-grossing horror franchises of all time, and is Capcom's best-selling franchise, with over 201 million copies sold worldwide as of May 2026. The first Resident Evil game was created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara for PlayStation, and was released in 1996. It is credited for defining the survival horror genre and returning zombies to popular culture. With Resident Evil 4, the franchise shifted to more dynamic shooting action, popularizing the now-ubiquitous "over-the-shoulder" third-person view in action-adventure games. The franchise returned to survival horror with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, which both used a first-person perspective.