Apple Design Award winner Monument Valley reaches 1m sales

Award-winning premium mobile title Monument Valley has sold in excess of 1m copies in its first four months out, developer Ustwo has announced.

Joystiq reports the game’s lead designer Ken Wong revealed the figure at a recent presentation, adding that it had recouped development costs in its first week on Apple’s App Store.

"Now, that doesn’t make us rich by any measure, but we made our money back and it means that the team can stay together and make another creative, crazy project with complete creative freedom. This is all we ever really wanted, not to get rich, but to be sustainable," Wong said.

Monument Valley was able to find success in the mobile space despite its relatively high $4 price tag, as well as it’s release intersecting with other premium mobile game arrivals including Hitman: Go and FTL.

"We’ve received hundreds of tweets and emails from people who say they never play games, not gamers, but they enjoyed and finished Monument Valley," he explained.

"For many of them, this is the first game that they’ve ever finished. We hear from parents who write in, proud that their 3-year-old can play Monument Valley, or that their 6-year-old can complete it by themselves without help. We hear from other people complaining that they can’t get their iPad back from their mom and dad.

"I think it’s wonderful that young girls can get into Monument Valley and see that, ‘Oh, here’s a game that’s not forcing me to kill people, and it’s not punishing me, and it has a princess who is not a stereotypical princess,’" Wong said. "I’m so glad that possibly Monument Valley will inspire some young girls to get into the field of game design."

Monument Valley is currently available for iOS and Android.