The prince is reported to be back in Britain after the revealing snaps first emerged on American celebrity gossip website TMZ before going viral.
Scores of media websites across the globe have published the two blurred images, apparently taken on a camera phone as he was partying in a Las Vegas hotel suite during an extended weekend break, while Dublin's Evening Herald splashed the naked picture on the front page of Wednesday's paper.
Despite the images being widely available on the internet, British media organisations have not run the images following an appeal from the royal's representatives to respect his privacy.
One non-mainstream British website to publish was the Guido Fawkes political blog.
St James' Palace admitted it was Harry in the pictures and confirmed it had contacted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over the matter.
UK publications were then advised not to publish the pictures as they were taken during a private moment while Harry, 27, was on holiday.
While his antics are the subject of many of Thursday's front pages, all newspapers complied with the request, with the Sun splashing the story by creating a mock-up with lookalikes posing as Harry and the woman.
Certain members of the media industry said the decision to run the images was a sign that the Leveson Inquiry has resulted in "neutered newspapers".
Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis said he would have published the photos before the inquiry into media ethics began.
He said: "The situation is fun, it's a good, classic newspaper situation. The problem is, in this post-Leveson era where newspapers are simply terrified of their own shadow, they daren't do things that most of the country, if they saw it in the newspaper, would think 'that's a bit of a laugh'."
Former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie said it was a "fantastic" story.
He said: "It doesn't affect Prince Harry at all, because in a way he is a 28-year-old Army officer, he is single and he is cavorting with ladies who wish to be cavorted with.
"So where are the issues? There are no issues except one: Leveson."
Although deeply embarrassing for the royal, who is due to embark on the next phase of his military career, there are unlikely to be any serious consequences for the prince. If any action is taken against Harry, an Army officer and Apache helicopter pilot, it would be down to his commanding officer to make the decision.
TMZ said the photos were taken last Friday after the prince and his entourage met some women in a hotel bar and invited them up to the royal's suite.
The group played a stripping game and someone in the party is thought to have captured the image of the naked prince on a camera phone.
In the first photograph, the royal is shown wearing just a necklace and a wristband with his hands around his genitals as a seemingly topless woman stands close behind him.
The nude prince, who is now back in Britain, is shown in another picture shielding himself behind an unknown woman who is also naked, with his bare bottom facing the camera.
But there is no suggestion that anything other than horseplay is going on between the royal and the unnamed woman.
A source said the prince was just "letting off steam" before the next important phase of his military career.
The pictures are the latest gaffe by the prince, whose past indiscretions include smoking cannabis as a teenager and scuffling outside a nightclub with a photographer.
The photographs of the naked royal come at the end of his eventful long-weekend break in Los Angeles and Las Vegas that was well documented in the British media.
Harry was filmed wearing a hat, sunglasses and colourful swimming shorts, socialising at a hotel pool party in Las Vegas as bikini-clad women strolled around him.
