Assassin’s Creed Shadows Hits 3 Million Players, Ubisoft Silent on Sales

Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has attracted over 3 million players since its launch on May 20. This impressive milestone was achieved within just seven days, a significant increase from the 2 million players reported on the game's second day. Shadows has surpassed the launch numbers of both Origins and Odyssey, setting a strong performance benchmark for the franchise.

Ubisoft's internal metrics, previously leaked via an email and reported by IGN, highlighted that Shadows' opening weekend performance outshone Origins and Odyssey, though it was noted that these comparisons are more relevant than those with Valhalla, which benefited from unique circumstances in 2020.

Notably, Shadows achieved the second highest day one sales revenue in the Assassin's Creed franchise history, only surpassed by Valhalla. It also recorded the highest Ubisoft day one sales on the PlayStation Store and has accumulated over 40 million hours of playtime.

The success of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is crucial for Ubisoft, especially following a challenging period marked by delays, the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws, and various setbacks including high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. The pressure is immense, as Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family has been exploring buyout deals with investors like Tencent to secure the company's intellectual property.

The gaming community has been closely monitoring Shadows' performance, particularly its Steam concurrents. Over the weekend, Shadows became the most-played Assassin's Creed game on Steam with a peak of 64,825 concurrent players. This is noteworthy as it was the first game in the series to launch day-one on Steam since Odyssey in 2018. Comparatively, Dragon Age: The Veilguard by BioWare saw a peak of 89,418 players on the same platform.

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While Shadows has seen strong player engagement, it's challenging to determine if it meets or exceeds Ubisoft's expectations without specific revenue or sales figures. Ultimately, the financial performance of Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be the deciding factor for both the game's success and Ubisoft's future. We'll likely gain more insight into this when Ubisoft releases its next financial report.

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