Ubisoft

How many copies did Rainbow Six sell? — 2024 statistics

Infiltrating the tactical measures of Siege.

Fact-checked
First Released
August 21, 1998
Genre
Tactical shooter
Developer
Ubisoft
Publisher
Ubisoft

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series has been a blend of strategy and shooter gameplay since its inception in 1998. Starting with the foundational “Rainbow Six,” the franchise has grown to include 15 titles, with Rainbow Six: Siege being a standout hit. But how many copies did Rainbow Six sell? To answer that and more, we’ll dive deep into Rainbow Six statistics. We’ll uncover its sales milestones, its historical journey, and what might be on the horizon for this iconic series. Of course, if you want to learn more about the world of gaming, we can tell you exactly how much the esports industry is worth!

Rainbow Six key stats

In this initial section, we’re diving into the world of the Rainbow Six franchise. Starting from its 1998 debut, we’ll journey through its evolution. While some of the older titles might not have as much detailed data due to their age and decreased relevance, the spotlight will shine brighter on recent hits like Rainbow Six: Siege and Rainbow Six: Extraction. Curious about Rainbow Six sales figures? Stay tuned as we delve into the numbers and the legacy of this iconic series.

The Rainbox Six sales reached over 36 million copies.

(Sources: VG Chartz, Twinfinite, GameSpot)

  • Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield sold 2.2 million+ copies.
  • Rainbow Six: Vegas sold 1.7 million+ copies.
  • Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 sold 2 million+ copies.
  • Rainbow Six: Siege has 85 million registered players.
  • Rainbow Six: Extraction sold over 5 million copies.

The information is fairly black and white in the first line of stats because we can see that Rainbow Six: Siege completely dominates the rest of the games and has brought in the most players. Keep in mind that 85 million registered players does not mean 85 million sales. This just means that there have been that many players in the game, be it through alternative accounts or the Xbox Game Pass. Other than that, the series has sold a considerable number of copies, although it hasn’t sold as many as some more popular franchises.

Rainbow Six: Siege made $1.1 billion in revenue in 2019.

(Source: Forbes)

  • The game was not well-received when it first came out, but the situation improved as more content was added to the game.
  • By 2019, the game had 55 million registered users.
  • Rainbow Six: Siege is one of the best games Ubisoft has released, given that Ghost Recon Breakpoint led to revenue declines of up to 90%.

Diving into the numbers, it’s astounding to see that Rainbow Six: Siege raked in over one billion dollars in revenue in just a single year. That’s a monumental achievement! It gives a clear perspective on the game’s massive success, standing out even within the Rainbow Six series. So, wondering how much money Rainbow Six: Siege made? Well, there’s your jaw-dropping answer.

Rainbow Six: Siege generated $36.8 million from microtransactions in June 2019.

(Source: Gaming Bolt. Siege)

  • This is a 50% increase compared to the earnings in May of the same year.
  • Ubisoft saw an 18% year-on-year increase in net bookings following the strong success of Rainbow Six: Siege.
  • Assassin’s Creed and Rainbow Six: Siege helped Ubisoft smash its goal of €270 million in revenue and propel the company to €406.1 million in revenue.

We all know that adding aggressive microtransaction business models is a horrible way of making your game better, as we have seen with the case of Electronic Arts and their Battlefront 2 fiasco. However, the microtransactions in Rainbow Six: Siege have nothing to do with progression as players can get through the game and never spend any money. Another thing to mention is that the amount of money that Rainbow Six: Siege generated in a single month is insane.

The Rainbow Six: Siege community made 3.7 billion kills in the game’s first year.

(Source: Lowyat)

  • 72,078 years of playtime were invested.
  • 1.4 billion terrorists were killed.
  • 319.7 billion bullets were fired.
  • Thermite and Rook were the most-picked operators with a 15.2% and 10.8% pick rate, respectively.
  • Tachanka’s turret killed 12.2 million players.
  • Kapkan’s traps killed 26.1 million players.
  • Jager’s drone denied 203.6 million thrown weapons.
  • Montagne’s shield blocked 473.6 million bullets.
  • Tachanka had 44.4 million kills and 55.9 million deaths.

These sorts of stats are very nice to look at because, when you think about it, this was back when Rainbow Six: Siege just came out and people fell in love with the game despite the lack of additional operators and gameplay mechanics. Billions of kills and 7 years later, Rainbow Six: Siege is still going strong and will be around for many years to come.

Rainbow Six: Extraction had 3 million players in its first week.

(Source: VG Chartz, Siege)

  • The game managed to accumulate 2 million more downloads in the following months of its release.
  • Unfortunately, the game did not manage to keep the attention of the fan base, resulting in a significant loss of active players.
  • Aside from periodic events, the game doesn’t offer much content for players to enjoy.
  • The game isn’t dying, but it has not been a hit for players who like games like Siege.
  • A lot of the reviews for the game have been fairly negative.

Now, this was a bit of a rough spot for the Rainbow Six series because the gameplay of Rainbow Six: Extraction was a bit… boring. While it is interesting in the first few hours, you quickly get accustomed to the AI opponents and you can breeze through stages. Despite the later disappointment, the hype surrounding the game when it was initially released was excellent and it crossed the three million milestone within its first week.

Rainbow Six Twitch and esports stats

The Rainbow Six games have a reputation for being very competitive because the skill ceiling is quite high and matches tend to be quite intense, so you can be sure that Rainbow Six: Siege has a very healthy esports scene with some excellent prize pools. Because of the competitive nature of the game, it also has a large following on Twitch, leading to hundreds of thousands of viewers and millions of hours of watch time. Since Rainbow Six: Siege has the best esports scene out of all the games, we’re going to be focusing on it to deliver you all of the most relevant information from both Twitch and competitive scenes.

Rainbow Six: Siege has awarded $35.5 million in prize pools.

(Source: Esports Earnings)

  • The earnings were distributed across 531 tournaments.
  • The Six Invitationals from 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 had the highest prize pools with $3 million each.
  • The rest of the tournaments had prize pools ranging from $2 million to $900.
  • 77.01% of the prize money was awarded at offline/LAN tournaments.
  • The country that won the most prize money for Rainbow Six: Siege was Brazil at $7.89 million.

We’ve already mentioned that Rainbow Six: Siege is a very competitive game with heated and intense combat sequences and that reflects perfectly when you look at the game’s esports scene. The game has generated millions of dollars through many tournaments, and we are sure that this hot streak will continue over the years as more and more content is added to the game, making it more complicated.

The most successful Rainbow Six: Siege professional player Julio “julio” Giacomelli won $488,000.

(Source: Esports Earnings)

  • He has won $488,000 from 35 tournaments.
  • His highest-earning year was 2021 with $226,030.
  • He is ranked #393 in the world and #5 in Brazil.

It’s a great thing to see a dedicated player make a huge profit in the game they love to play, and Julio Giacomelli can definitely be considered one of the best Rainbow Six: Siege players in the world, at least when it comes to his winnings. Of course, this doesn’t just happen overnight as it takes an insane amount of practice and dedication to reach the top.

Rainbow Six: Siege is the 9th-highest prize pool esport.

(Source: Esports Earnings)

  • It beat Hearthstone for 10th place in 2022.
  • The game is currently ahead of some of the most popular competitive games like Hearthstone, Valorant, Apex Legends, and Rocket League.
  • The game has 2798 players competing in its esports scene.

The competitive nature of esports is not limited to the games themselves as games and publishers themselves will compete for the highest earnings on the leaderboard, on which Rainbow Six: Siege is performing quite well. It raced past Hearthstone back in 2019 for the #10 spot and is now sitting comfortably at the #9 position.

Rainbow Six: Siege’s most successful Twitch year was 2021 with 194.8 million hours watched.

(Source: SullyGnome)

  • It had 10 million broadcasting hours.
  • There were 22,242 viewers watching the game on average.
  • There were 1,145 channels streaming the game on average.
  • The game had a viewer ratio of 19.4.
  • Its peak viewer count was 272,726.
  • It was ranked #21 based on average viewer count.
  • It was ranked #45 based on peak viewer count.

When a game as good as Rainbow Six: Siege has such a highly competitive atmosphere, it should come as no surprise that people absolutely love watching it as well. In 2021, which could be considered the peak year for Rainbow Six: Siege streaming the game amassed nearly 200 million hours watched, which is quite impressive seeing as some games with the same level of gameplay quality do not have nearly as much.

To sum up

Okay, so that would be all we have to say about the Rainbow Six series, although we have mostly focused on Siege and Extraction. This is because, over time, games tend to fall out of relevance, and the difference in quality between modern games and games that were released over twenty years ago is so astronomical that there isn’t much of a point in comparing them anyway. However, this does not mean that we cannot look back on the previous Rainbow Six games and note that they have paved the way to excellence which has culminated in Rainbow Six: Siege. Although some of the games did not get the recognition they deserve, the Rainbow Six series is a timeless classic that is going to stick around for many years to come, and we are glad to have been able to provide you with this information. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed what we had to say here and that you have learned something new!

Sources

  • “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six (Series)”. VG Chartz, 2020, https://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=226100&region=All
  • “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six”. VG Chartz, 2020, https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=tom+clancy
  • “Rainbow Six Extraction Passed 5 Million Active Players as PlayStation & PC Games Dominate Ubisoft Sales in Q3”. Twinfinite, 2022, https://twinfinite.net/2022/02/ubisoft-financial-results-q3-2021/
  • “Seven Years After Launch, Rainbow Six Siege Has 85M Players And Spending Continues To Rise”. GameSpot, 2022, https://www.gamespot.com/articles/seven-years-after-launch-rainbow-six-siege-has-85m-players-and-spending-continues-to-rise/1100-6508686/
  • “Top Games Awarding Prize Money”. Esports Earnings, 2023, https://www.esportsearnings.com/games
  • “Júlio “julio” Giacomelli – Rainbow Six Siege Player”. Esports Earnings, 2023, https://www.esportsearnings.com/players/17226-julio-julio-giacomelli
  • “Rainbow Six Siege”. Esports Earnings, 2023, https://www.esportsearnings.com/games/439-rainbow-six-siege
  • “Rainbow Six Siege overtakes Hearthstone to become 10th-highest prize pool esport”. Siege.gg, 2022, https://siege.gg/news/r6-overtakes-hearthstone-to-become-the-10th-highest-prize-pool-esport
  • “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege”. SullyGnome, 2021, https://sullygnome.com/game/Tom_Clancys_Rainbow_Six_Siege/2021
  • “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege”. Lowyat, 2014, https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3252862/all
  • “‘Rainbow Six Siege’ Hits Over 55 Million Registered Players”. Forbes, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattperez/2020/02/06/rainbow-six-siege-hits-over-55-million-registered-players/?sh=7590a4dd172d
  • “Rainbow Six Siege Generated $36.8 Million From In-Game Spending in June 2019 – SuperData”. Gaming Bolt, 2019, https://gamingbolt.com/rainbow-six-siege-generated-36-8-million-from-in-game-spending-in-june-2019-superdata
  • “Rainbow Six Siege outperforms Ubisoft expectations, crosses 85m players with 18 percent YoY revenue growth”. Siege.gg, 2022, https://siege.gg/news/rainbow-six-siege-outperforms-ubisofts-expectations-crosses-85m-players-has-18-percent-yoy-revenue-growth
  • “Is Rainbow Six Extraction dying?”. Siege.gg, 2022, https://siege.gg/news/is-rainbow-six-extraction-dying
  • “What happened to Rainbow Six Extraction?”. Siege.gg, 2023, https://siege.gg/news/what-happened-to-rainbow-six-extraction
  • “Rainbow Six Extraction Tops 3 Million Players in 1st Week – News”. VG Chartz, 2022, https://www.vgchartz.com/article/452384/rainbow-six-extraction-tops-3-million-players-in-1st-week/