"Power" was released in the United States on September 13, 1988, through Sire on vinyl, compact disc, and cassette. The album debuted on the "Billboard" 200 on October 1, 1988, at number 102. "Power" stayed on this chart for 33 weeks and peaked at number 35 on November 12, 1988. While touring to support "Power", Ice-T visited schools as a mentor "telling the students of his shady past and profitable present". By January 1989, "Power" had sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States and went gold. A profanity-free version of the record was never released. Ice-T compared this to the release of N.W.A.'s album, stating that he felt releasing a clean album was "selling out" and that "N.W.A. made more money because of it, but I had my integrity."