Ubisoft's The Crew franchise hits 40 million players

Ubisoft's The Crew series has brought in 40 million players. Stephane Beley, creative director of the franchise and its developer Ivory Tower, confirmed the news on Twitter. 

"15 years ago a group of friends dreamed of creating their own driving game," wrote Beley. "Ubisoft trusted them. Ivory gave birth to The Crew. [...] Always believe in your dreams! Thank you all."

40 million players across two games is impressive, considering that The Crew 2 was released all the way back in 2018, then 2020 for Google Stadia. Later this year, the developers intend to release The Crew Motorfest.

The original The Crew released in 2014 from Ivory Tower, which was founded in 2007 by Beley, Ahmed Boukhelifa, and Emmanuel Oualid. The following year, Ubisoft acquired Ivory Tower for an undisclosed sum. 

What does The Crew bring to The Table for Ubisoft?

The car racing genre has been kept alive for years by triple-A giants such as the Forza, Need for Speed, and F1 series. While Ubisoft puts out sports games like Riders Republic and the Trials games every now and then, car racing isn't one of the studio's big genres.

Racing games have become a perfect fit for the live service model, which Ubisoft is continually relying on to bring in revenue. In its financial report from earlier in February, it pointed to The Crew Motorfest as a live game with the potential to be "long-lasting." 

Again, The Crew has hit a pretty impressive milestone for a franchise whose last installment was five years ago. That sort of long tail is what Ubisoft likes, and has been reflected in other titles such as Rainbow Six Siege and the last three Assassin's Creed games.

Unlike with its other big franchises, Ubisoft doesn't need to annualize The Crew or make a show out of it for the series to be successful. It appears to be doing fine on its own as the publisher puts its primary focus on other big brands like Tom Clancy, Assassin's Creed, and Watch Dogs.