The Crew Was Downloaded 3 Million Times on Xbox One During Free Promo

More than three million people downloaded Ubisoft's racing game The Crew on Xbox One when it was free on the platform through the Games With Gold program this summer.

Ubisoft CFO Alain Corre revealed the figure during an earnings call today. He also mentioned that The Crew now has than 8 million registered players spread across all platforms.

Additionally, Corre revealed that the Games With Gold release led to a "huge boost" in player recurrent spending, totaling a 15-fold increase during the month it was free from June 16 to July 15. The dollar value of this amounted to over one third of the lifetime extra content revenue generated on Xbox One from The Crew.

"A great achievement for a title released 19 months ago," Corre said.

It's a rarity for a publisher to discuss download figures for Games With Gold or PlayStation Plus. As such, it's difficult to know how the 3 million figure compares to other Games With Gold or PlayStation Plus games.

Whatever the case, bringing in millions more players is likely something Ubisoft is happy with, especially if it wants The Crew to become a franchise. The game launched in December 2014, while an expansion pack called Wild Run came out in November 2015.

As for Ubisoft's sales numbers, things are looking good for the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry publisher. The company's net sales rose 44 percent year-over-year, while digital sales made up a record 75.3 percent.