How many copies did Tomb Raider sell? — 2024 statistics

Tomb Raider sales have reached an impressive 95 million copies worldwide.

(Source: Game World Observer, VG Sales)

• 38 million of those sales came from the AAA release of Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
• This puts Tomb Raider among the best-selling video game franchises alongside Halo, Monster Hunter, and Resident Evil.
• Rise of the Tomb Raider only sold 1 million units.
• The highest-selling game is Tomb Raider (2013) with 14.5 million sales.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider sold 8.9 million copies.

How many copies did Tomb Raider sell? When you take into consideration that many of the global gaming franchises have achieved nearly 100 million total sales, and Tomb Raider achieved that status as well. The interesting thing is that a good portion of the sales came from the AAA trilogy which acted as a sort of reboot to the series where they made it go in a different direction, so that bodes well with the series in general.

Embracer Group bought Tomb Raider and other studios for $300 million.

(Source: PC Gamer)

• Some say that this was not a profitable acquisition as Shadow of The Tomb Raider cost $100 million to make and $35 million to promote alone.
• That same game was on sale the same year it was released.
• Embracer Group also acquired Coffee Stain Group for $34.9 million, Koch Media for $96 million, and Saber Interactive for $525 million.

Acquisitions are a common occurrence in the modern world of gaming and in broader fields, so you have companies that choose to sell their main IPs for economic reasons, and that is what happened with Square Enix and Tomb Raider. Square Enix justified its sale of Tomb Raider and other IPs as an attempt to gain revenue through sales and avoid losing money by pushing them further. It was a purely business decision and is completely understandable.

Microsoft paid $100 million to make Rise of the Tomb Raider an Xbox exclusive.

(Source: The Gamer)

• Fans were not happy with Rise of the Tomb Raider being an Xbox exclusive.
• The game was later made available on more platforms, including PlayStation, PC, and some cloud gaming services.
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider was updated to support 4K visuals.
• Despite the update, Shadow of the Tomb Raider has still been called a mediocre game.

Originally, Rise of the Tomb Raider was supposed to be an Xbox exclusive and Square Enix paid over $100 million to keep it that way, but it ended up backfiring horribly as fans were outraged that their favorite series which had been available on all platforms in the past was suddenly locked to a single console. The issue was rectified at a later date, but it still impacted the franchise in a negative way.

Despite selling the most copies in the franchise, Tomb Raider (2013) initially had very poor sales performance.

(Source: Shack News)

• Both Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution fell short of sales expectations which prompted Square Enix to restructure and re-plan their approach.
• They initially forecast a $37 million profit, but it turned out to be a whopping$138 million loss.
• The reason for such poor sales is the slow sales of major game titles in North America and Europe.

Tomb Raider (2013) had some of the best overall performance in the Tomb Raider series, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows at the start. When the game had just launched, Square Enix note that both it and Hitman Absolution did not perform as well as the studio expected, leading them to consider moving the series in a different direction altogether.

Amazon reportedly paid $600 million to lease the film rights of Tomb Raider.

(Source: Dexerto)

• The writer of the movie is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who has directed works such as Fleabag, Killing Eve, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
• Some sources claim that Amazon intends to make Tomb Raider into a massive franchise like Marvel.
• The end-term goal is to make the Tomb Raider game, animated series, and movie into one connected universe.

The expectations you should have for the Tomb Raider movie are the same for the animated series because video game adaptations are notoriously bad except for some exceptions like The Last of Us. However, the Tomb Raider movie is supposed to be directed by a well-established director, so it is looking promising.

Tomb Raider is getting two seasons of a Netflix anime series.

(Source: What’s On Netflix)

• It was first announced in January 2021.
• It is supposed to come out sometime in 2023.
• Netflix’s official site has stated that the show is a Japanese road trip adventure following the events of the AAA trilogy.
• Tasha Huo, the lead writer for the animated series, has stated that they are going to unify all of the Tomb Raider timelines and proceed past the survivor trilogy.

Netflix seems to be everywhere right now, right? As a platform popular for some amazing releases as well as some… questionable moves, you can never know what a game-related series is going to fare, so we still have to wait and see how it turns out. If it serves as any solace, the roadmap for the series seems to have a good deal of structure and detail, so it might just be good!

Players raided 6.3 million tombs in Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

(Source: Lara’s Fridge)

• 3.6 million crypts were raided.
• 31.5 traps were activated.
• Players managed to avoid traps 83% of the time.
• Wallspears were the deadliest type of trap.
• 78.3 million relics were found over the whole game.
• 1.5 million llamas were pet.
• 4.9 million hours were spent exploring the Hidden City of Paititi.
• 1% of players completed their proficiency in the Maya, Aztec, and Inca languages.
• 13.4 million picture-perfect shots were taken in Photographer Mode.
• 9% of players used the Classic Lara skin.
• 17% of kills were made while Lara was camouflaged in mud.
• players achieved a headshot accuracy of 11%.
• Players were stealthy 25% of the time.
• 5% of players finished the game on Obsession Difficulty.

It is unfortunate that the developers of Tomb Raider did not release any more infographics for their other games, but you have to make do with what you have, and from the information presented here, we can see that the Shadow of the Tomb Raider community actually racked up some considerable stats, exploring millions of tombs and crypts, and collecting millions of artifacts as a result. Shadow of the Tomb Raider has some fantastic reviews and it is apparent that the community enjoys the game greatly.

The first 8 games in the Tomb Raider series won 6 Guinness World Records.

(Source: PaliComp)

• Some of the rewards include Most Recognisable Gaming Heroine, Most Successful Video Game Heroine, and Highest Grossing Game Spin-Off.
• Between 1996 and 2008, Lara Croft’s model went from 230 to 32,816 polygons.
• Lara Croft visited 17 different countries within the first 8 games of the series.
• Lara Croft was voiced by 6 different women between 1996 and 2013.
• 13 women have modeled as Lara Croft.

When a game gets a lot of rewards, that is one thing. However, having a Guinness World Record is an amazing feat, and the Tomb Raider series managed to collect six of them across the first 8 games. Although some of these records have most likely been broken over time, those original records still stand as a testament to the sheer quality of the Tomb Raider series.

To sum up

Now that we have said what we have to say, you are free to go on and raid all of the tombs you like! As we’ve said before, the Tomb Raider series has achieved global fame as one of the best action-adventure series and it easily stands its ground against other notorious series like Uncharted, BioShock, and many more. Lara Croft has been raiding tombs and being a badass for over 25 years, and she is showing no signs of stopping. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed the information presented here and that you have learned something new!