1997 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, GoldenEye 007, Star Fox 64, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Quake II, Mega Man Legends, Riven, Tomb Raider II, Dark Rift, Tekken 3 and Virtua Striker 2, along with new titles such as Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Gran Turismo, Diablo, Grand Theft Auto and Fallout. Sony's PlayStation was the year's best-selling video game console worldwide for the second year in a row, while also being the annual best-selling console in Japan for the first time (overtaking the Game Boy and Sega Saturn). The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, while the year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Sega's Virtua Fighter 3 and Print Club 2.

Events

Hardware

Discontinued

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1997.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are online aggregators of video game journalism reviews. Note that their coverage of print magazines at the time was limited, with numerous print magazines not listed on their sites.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1997 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games in Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1997.

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

Final Fantasy VII was the best-selling home video game worldwide in 1997. It sold more than 6 million copies worldwide by 1998, becoming the best-selling PlayStation game up until then. The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) of 1997 in Japan and the United States.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the top-selling home video games of each month in 1997.

Notable releases

Business

Lawsuits