Assassin’s Creed Shadows Now Up to 3 Million Players, but Still No Sales Figure From Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has already made a strong impression, drawing in more than 3 million players within its first week of release, according to Ubisoft. This milestone was reached just seven days after the game launched on May 20, showing impressive growth from the 2 million players reported as early as day two. This launch has outperformed previous entries in the franchise, including Origins and Odyssey.

Additional performance metrics were initially disclosed by IGN through an leaked internal email, which highlighted that Shadows’ opening weekend was stronger compared to Origins and Odyssey, though it didn’t reach the unprecedented success of Valhalla, which benefited from what Ubisoft described as a “perfect storm” of favorable market conditions in 2020.

On launch day, Shadows achieved the second-highest sales revenue in the Assassin's Creed franchise, trailing only Valhalla, which remains Ubisoft’s most successful PlayStation Store debut. So far, players have logged over 40 million hours of gameplay since release.

The stakes are high for Assassin's Creed Shadows globally, especially following multiple delays and the underwhelming performance of last year’s Star Wars Outlaws. Leading up to Shadows' release, Ubisoft faced a series of setbacks, including several high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations.

At one point, the company's founding Guillemot family reportedly engaged in discussions with Chinese tech giant Tencent and other potential investors regarding a possible buyout deal. The primary goal was to maintain control over the company’s valuable intellectual property. As such, the gaming industry is closely monitoring Shadows’ early performance as an indicator of whether Ubisoft is turning things around—or heading further downward.

Much attention has also been placed on Shadows’ Steam player numbers, particularly when compared to recent triple-A single-player titles and prior Assassin’s Creed releases on Valve’s platform. Over the weekend, Shadows hit a peak of 64,825 concurrent players on Steam, making it the most-played entry in the series on the platform. It’s worth noting, however, that this is the first Assassin’s Creed title to launch day-and-date on Steam since 2018’s Odyssey. For comparison, BioWare’s latest single-player RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, peaked at 89,418 players on the same platform.

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It’s still too early to determine whether Shadows is underperforming, meeting, or exceeding Ubisoft’s expectations without knowing specific revenue or sales targets. While player engagement and active user counts are promising, financial results will ultimately dictate the future of both the game and the company. We’ll likely need to wait until Ubisoft’s next quarterly financial report to get a clearer understanding of how well the game is truly doing.

If you're diving into feudal Japan, make sure to check out our comprehensive Assassin's Creed Shadows guide, complete with an in-depth Assassin's Creed Shadows walkthrough, a detailed Assassin's Creed Shadows Interactive Map, and our breakdown of all the essential things Assassin’s Creed Shadows doesn’t tell you.