Assassin’s Creed Shadows Said to Be Series’ Second Biggest Launch Ever

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows was released last week and had an impressive opening weekend, with more than 2 million players flocking to PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Ubisoft confirmed on Saturday that the action role-playing game has surpassed AC Origins and Odyssey in terms of launch numbers. While the company has yet to reveal initial sales figures, two separate reports claim that Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is the series’ second-largest launch ever, behind only 2020’s Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows becomes the series’ second-biggest launch

The latest Assassin’s Creed game is said to have generated the second-highest first-day sales for a game in the series. The information comes from two separate reports from VGC and IGN, which cite Ubisoft sources and an internal email discussing the game’s sales performance. Shadow’s launch day sales were second only to Valhalla in the series, which remains the highest-selling Assassin’s Creed game of all time.

It’s also worth noting that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla comes at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when countries around the world implemented lockdown rules, causing more people to stay home and play video games. The game’s sales also benefited from cross-generation releases on consoles.

Ubisoft acknowledges this. According to a report from IGN, the company believes Valhalla’s stellar sales are the result of favorable conditions, and therefore intends to compare Shadow to the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey.

“Valhalla is launching under unique conditions — widespread lockdowns and brand new console hardware during a global pandemic,” the report said, citing internal communications from Ubisoft. “It’s a perfect storm that we may never see again. That’s why it makes more sense to compare Shadows to games that released in more typical cycles, like Origins, Odyssey, and Phantom. Within this framework, Shadows has set a new standard, as shown above.”

Steam launch brings Assassin’s Creed: Shadows benefits

Additionally, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was Ubisoft’s best-performing game on the PlayStation Store on day one, according to the company’s sales figures reported by two publications. The game has also developed a sizable player base on PC, especially on its first day of release on Steam. According to Ubisoft, 27% of the game’s total “activations” come from PC, with Steam playing a “significant role.”

However, Ubisoft has yet to reveal sales figures for Shadow, although it has cited strong player engagement in internal and public communications. The company said over the weekend that the game has surpassed 2 million players. However, this number includes Ubisoft+ members who can access the game without purchasing a copy.

According to SteamDB charts, the Japanese-set action RPG has reached an all-time high of 64,825 concurrent players as of this writing, and that number is likely to rise in the coming days. Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ sales performance should become clearer over time, especially when Ubisoft reports its quarterly financial results.

The French company had been banking on the game’s success following a series of disappointments with Avatar: Pandora’s Frontier and Star Wars: Outlaws. Ubisoft’s shares have taken a beating over the past year, falling 40% in 2024, forcing the company’s founders, the Guillemot family, to explore acquisition talks with Tencent and other investors.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will be released on March 20 after being postponed twice from its original release date of November 15, 2024. Ubisoft said it used the additional development time to further refine the game and incorporate player feedback.