Square Enix’s decision to sell a trove of franchises and studios to Embracer Group has yielded some interesting info, including the lifetime sales of the Tomb Raider franchise.
Following Embracer Group’s agreement to purchase Eidos Montreal, Square Enix Montreal, and Crystal Dynamics, from Square Enix, the company shared a timeline of the Tomb Raider franchise. According to the timeline, Tomb Raider has sold 88 million units since its inception in 1996, with 38 million of the lifetime sales coming from the Reboot Trilogy alone, which includes Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Additionally, the franchise saw more than 53 million paid mobile downloads from entries such as Lara Croft: Relic Run and Lara Croft: Go.
Embracer Group’s Tomb Raider timeline reveals that Tomb Raider has 88 million units since its inception in 1996.
The timeline shows other Tomb Raider games like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris spinoffs, as well as games before the 2013 reboot, including Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and Tomb Raider: Underworld.
Crystal Dynamics studio head Scot Amos explains that the Tomb Raider brand is a strong one, saying, “This is just looking at the games. We still have an entire transmedia world out there, known for films, new series coming, comics, and looking across what the possibilities are for this franchise, I tell you the best is yet to come.”
Last month, Crystal Dynamics announced that it is currently working on a new Tomb Raider game utilizing Unreal Engine 5.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey
