Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has surpassed 3 million players just seven days after its launch on May 20. This impressive milestone comes after the game reached 2 million players within its first two days, outpacing the launches of both Origins and Odyssey.
In an internal email covered by IGN, Ubisoft compared Shadows' opening weekend performance to that of Origins and Odyssey, noting it did not reach the "perfect storm" launch of 2020’s Valhalla. Shadows achieved the second highest day one sales revenue in the Assassin's Creed franchise history, only behind Valhalla, and marked the biggest Ubisoft day one ever on the PlayStation Store. The game has already seen over 40 million hours played.
The success of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is crucial for Ubisoft, especially following a challenging period marked by delays, the sales failure of Star Wars Outlaws, and a series of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. The pressure on Shadows to perform well globally is immense. Amidst these struggles, Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family reportedly explored talks with Chinese mega-corp Tencent and other investors about a buyout deal to retain control of the company's intellectual property. As a result, the video game industry is closely monitoring Shadows' early performance as an indicator of Ubisoft's future.
On Steam, Assassin’s Creed Shadows became the most-played game in the series over the weekend, reaching a peak of 64,825 concurrent players. This was the first Assassin's Creed game to launch day-one on Steam since Odyssey in 2018. In comparison, BioWare’s single-player RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard peaked at 89,418 players on Valve’s platform.
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Determining whether Assassin’s Creed Shadows is meeting, exceeding, or falling below Ubisoft’s expectations remains challenging without specific revenue or sales figures. Ultimately, the financial performance of the game will be a key determinant of its success and the future trajectory of Ubisoft. We may gain a clearer understanding when Ubisoft releases its next financial report in the coming months.
For those exploring the feudal Japan setting of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, dive into our comprehensive Assassin's Creed Shadows guide, including our Assassin's Creed Shadows walkthrough, our detailed Assassin's Creed Shadows Interactive Map, and our guide to all the crucial things Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t tell you.
