Tomb Raider Reboot Sells 8.5M Copies, Highest of Franchise

Crystal Dynamics' 2013 Tomb Raider reboot sold 8.5 million copies, making it the highest selling entry of the series' 19 year history.

Tomb Raider has had a long history, with the very first game premiering in 1996, but the 2013 remake has been its most successful yet according to Square Enix. Polygon reports that the sales of Tomb Raider on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC combined with the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition re-release for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have successfully sold over 8.5 million copies. This number is even more surprising when compared to the overall game sales that the Tomb Raider franchise has had over its entire career. Overall, Square Enix has sold more than 40 million copies of Tomb Raider games, which makes the 2013 and 2014 versions of Tomb Raider over make up 20 percent of the franchise's overall sales.

Oddly enough, Square Enix isn't quite as impressed with Tomb Raider's sales as, in a 2013 statement, the publisher brought up the game as an example of "weak sales of big console titles" in North America and Europe. The list included three different titles, Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, and were mentioned as being the games that didn't reach their sales targets. This was said despite Lady Croft breaking records for day-one and first-month sales for the Tomb Raider franchise.

Luckily, after Tomb Raider managed to sell over 8 million copies, Square Enix felt a little bit better about the new adaptation. We will just have to wait and see if Rise of the Tomb Raider will cause them the same conflicting feelings when it comes out exclusively for Xbox platforms this holiday season. Of course, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics shouldn't measure the sequel's sales until its timed exclusiveness with Xbox wears off and it debuts for PlayStation systems sometime in 2016.