Ubisoft’s newest adventure Assassin’s Creed Shadows has reached 2 million players since dropping on March 20, beating the launch numbers of earlier titles Assassin’s Creed Origins and Odyssey. The game hit an impressive 1 million players on its first day alone.
The company shared this milestone through their official Assassin’s Creed account on X (formerly Twitter). Ubisoft’s choice to release Shadows on Steam from day one seems to be working out great for them. The game has already topped AC Origins’ all-time peak player count and is nearing AC Odyssey’s record.
Looking at the numbers, Shadows has reached a peak of 60,086 concurrent players on Steam, easily beating Valhalla’s 15,679 and Origins’ 41,551. It’s closing in on Odyssey’s record of 62,069 players. However, previous Assassin’s Creed games weren’t available on Steam when they first launched.
The game’s strong performance on Steam has earned it a spot among the top 30 most-played games on the platform. Experts suggest these numbers will likely climb even higher as the weekend continues.
It also maintained a “very positive” rating with 80% of over 6,000 Steam user reviews giving it a thumbs up.
While Ubisoft has announced “how many people are playing”, they haven’t shared specific figures on “how much it actually sold at $70 standard price” yet. The way Ubisoft worded their announcement hints that while Shadows is doing better than Origins and Odyssey at launch, it probably hasn’t topped 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which had the franchise’s biggest launch ever.
The success comes at a crucial time for Ubisoft. The publisher has been dealing with quite a few challenges lately – game cancellations, delays, and Star Wars Outlaws not meeting expectations. There have also been reports that Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family is exploring potential deals with investors like Tencent to maintain control of the company.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has navigated some controversies too, especially in Japan. The game received a day-one patch making changes that seemed to address concerns from Japanese politicians about how temples and shrines were depicted. The issue was significant enough to be discussed in an official Japanese government meeting, with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba weighing in.
With such a strong start, many industry watchers are now curious to see if Assassin’s Creed Shadows will continue attracting more players and potentially become the most popular title in this long-running franchise.
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