Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom originally for the PlayStation. It is the first title in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S., who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters.

Conceived by producer Tokuro Fujiwara as a remake of his earlier horror game Sweet Home (1989), the development of Resident Evil was led by Shinji Mikami. It went through several redesigns, first as Super NES game in 1993, then a fully 3D first-person PlayStation game in 1994 and finally a third-person game. Gameplay consists of action, exploration, puzzle solving and inventory management. Resident Evil establishes many conventions seen later in the series, including the control scheme, inventory system, save system, and use of 3D models superimposed over pre-rendered backgrounds.

Resident Evil was praised for its graphics, gameplay, sound, and atmosphere, although it received criticism for its voice acting. It was an international best-seller, and became the best-selling PlayStation game ever at the time. By December 1997, it had sold about 4 million copies worldwide and had grossed more than $200,000,000 (equivalent to $346,000,000 in 2021).

Resident Evil is often cited as one of the most influential and greatest video games. It is credited with defining the survival horror genre and with returning zombies to popular culture, leading to a renewed interest in zombie films by the 2000s. It created a franchise including video games, films, comics, novels, and other merchandise. It has been ported to Sega Saturn, Windows and Nintendo DS. In 2002, a Resident Evil remake was released for the GameCube and ported to other platforms in 2015. A sequel, Resident Evil 2, was released in 1998, and a prequel, Resident Evil Zero, in 2002.