Prince of Persia The Lost Crown Sold 1.3 Million Copies in First Year

The newest entry in the Prince of Persia franchise, 2024’s The Lost Crown, is a terrific game.

Our review praised the game’s art direction and genre choice as a Metroidvania. Prince of Persia’s gameplay was a perfect fit.

Unfortunately, the game struggled to sell well out of the game, with it only moving 300,000 copies in its first month.

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Flash forward a year, though, and you can add a one in front of that number.

According to Alexandre Guenounou’s LinkedIn page, an Associate Marketing Director for Ubisoft, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown hassold over 1.3 million copies.

The Prince of Persia Series Is At a Crossroads

Prince of persia the lost crown Time manipulating combat

Last year, we hypothesized the reasoning behind The Lost Crown‘s poor sales despite the game being incredibly good.

First and foremost, the Prince of Persia franchise lacks the star power it once had. Sands of Time, regarded as one of the best games ever made, was released over two decades ago. However, a whole audience of gamers has never played it or any Prince of Persia title. They are arguably more aware of the poorly received 2010 Hollywood film starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ubisoft has also struggled to move the franchise forward following the conclusion of the Prince of Persia trilogy (Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones).

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2008’s Prince of Persia rebooted the series, followed by 2010’s The Forgotten Sands. That was all she wrote on the franchise until last year; a remake of Sands of Time, which fans wanted to see over a 2D Metroidvania, has been stuck in development hell.

Then there’s the nature of the Metroidvania genre in general, which is filled with countless classic games, most of which don’t carry the full price tag of an AAA title. Why would gamers spend full price when they can get a similar experience for half the cost from the indie market, especially if it’s a franchise they’ve never experienced before?

Ubisoft is at a crossroads with their once famed franchise. Maybe when the Sands of Time remake finally releases, it can be restored to its former glory.