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[semiconscious]

As announced on the official Assassin's Creed X account (formerly Twitter), AC Shadows has surpassed 5 million players. Readers should note that this number does not reflect the number of units sold. The post also provides us with some additional statistics, including 2 billion stealth kills, 1 billion kilometres, and 38 million animals petted by the community...

i mean, this, rather than sales numbers? c'mon, now...

 

[StreetsofBeige]

These are awful, flop-level numbers.

Assassin's Creed III sold 12 million copies worldwide within the same timeframe, while costing between 1/4 to 1/5 of Shadows' budget.

But dont count out corporate PR. They'll promote every tidbit of info like they just hit the lottery.

10 years from now after it has been bargain binned at -85% off on digital stores, UBI might be able to tell the world it SOLD 5M copies.

 

[Roufianos]

For reference, Tom Henderson expected 6 million players in the first month. So at least according to his expectations, the actual number is pretty bad.

If Valhalla and Shadows were actually good then maybe it would have continued that upward trajectory.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Those numbers are obviously lower than previous entries, but that doesn't make it a flop; remember valhalla was the first to surpass 1 billion in revenue, and it definitely didn't do that just buy selling copies, it would have had to sell like 25-30 million copies to do that, which it definitely didn't, considering all the discounts ubi has regularly; earnings for in-game purchases, and upcoming dlc, could see the whole project turning a profit.

 

[ValiantInstance]

I think it is doing well considering all the controversy. They never sell enough, but they are not going out of business.

They just restructured their ips into a separate entity to avoid going out of business.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

AC Shadows doing UBI stock no favours. Stock at $9. Just a touch above the tariff lows of $8. Just about every company has rebounded hard from April tariff meltdown.... except UBI. lol

 

[Pop]

A lot of companies do this total players shtick to make it seem like all of em are currently playing it.

5 mil players not sales since launch is horrible for ass creed

 

[Roufianos]

Also does this mean Expedition 33 sold more? Most likely.

 

[Generic]

Yasuke won.

 

[Tams]

And the black samurai "controversy" was completely overblown. His character made sense in the context of the story being told.

Well, it lost a sale to me.

 

[Kotaro]

So 5 million players in 4 months, let's compare to other recent sales figures

Exp-33 sold 3.3 million in 33 days
Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero sold 5 million in 3 months
Monster Hunter Wilds sold 10 million in one month
Elden Ring Nightreign sold 3.5 million in 5 days
Stellar Blade PC sold 2 million in one month

so by any comparison, AC Shadows is a flop

 

[Fake]

So 5 million players in 4 months, let's compare to other recent sales figures

Exp-33 sold 3.3 million in 33 days
Dragon Ball Sparkling Zero sold 5 million in 3 months
Monster Hunter Wilds sold 10 million in one month
Elden Ring Nightreign sold 3.5 million in 5 days
Stellar Blade PC sold 2 million in one month

so by any comparison, AC Shadows is a flop

I mean, comparing players with sales?

How of those list you mention used players instead of sales?

 

[MayauMiao]

5 million players is just damage control from actual sold units number.

Keep in mind what happened to their previous game with the so called millions of players.

 

[Kenpachii]

Playing the game right now and i must say the visuals are amazing, and the gameplay loop is great so far.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Those numbers are obviously lower than previous entries, but that doesn't make it a flop; remember valhalla was the first to surpass 1 billion in revenue, and it definitely didn't do that just buy selling copies, it would have had to sell like 25-30 million copies to do that, which it definitely didn't, considering all the discounts ubi has regularly; earnings for in-game purchases, and upcoming dlc, could see the whole project turning a profit.

I learned with wow. The downhill trajectory is hard to stop or even slow. It would require major changes.

These numbers are an omen.

Best it doesn't go unheeded.

They should reinvent the series similar to how BotW did for Zelda or Elden Ring did for Dark Souls. OG fans may hate it but they need new blood and word of mouth. The new fans are slowly not returning and it will get worse with each barely-par entry.

 

[Perrott]

I think it's likely that after this many years and a ridiculous amount of AC games, a lot of people are just worn out and sick of the series. 5 million doesn't seem THAT bad imo. Certainly ain't 12 mil, but it doesn't seem terrible.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla -- five years and just two AC game releases ago, plus already on this generation of consoles -- ended up as the best selling game in the whole series. It doesn't seem like a fatigue issue, especially with a five year gap since the last mainline, truly ambitious AC game.

It is a matter of a truly terrible PR campaign and lackluster, uninspired execution of the end product.

 

[Rocinante618]

I'm happy for Ubisoft & the franchise, this means I can get my lesbian Witch themed, Gothic styled Assassin's Creed Hexe by Montreal. I'm yet to complete Odyssey, Valhalla & Mirage so by the time I'm done with those three, I'll get Shadow for 75-80% and just in time for Hexe to launch.

At this point, Assassin's Creed is just your another action adventure, fantasy, sci-fi game and I'm fine with that.

 

[DForce]

5 million players is just damage control from actual sold units number.

Keep in mind what happened to their previous game with the so called milkins of players.

XDefiant is free to play.

Unbisoft has been reporting players for years, and now people are having an issue with it.

 

[Danny22]

Assassin's Creed III sold 12 million copies worldwide within the same timeframe, while costing between 1/4 to 1/5 of Shadows' budget.

These Ass Creed games aren't really one and done like those PS3 games were.

Ubisoft's going to be releasing content for the next two years along with added MTX and even after the next game is released, they're likely going to keep releasing content for this peridodically though their broader Infinity project. That's how Valhalla ended up getting more than than previous AC games, that's how this game's trajectory will go.

AC is basically single player live service atp and it's partly why the main plot of shadows feels unfinished (because its made with the idea of ongoing content rather than a proper ending).

I'm happy for Ubisoft & the franchise, this means I can get my lesbian Witch themed, Gothic styled Assassin's Creed Hexe by Montreal.

Yeah, that sounds oddly interesting and I'm glad they're both trying new things and that they would rather delay a game after what SW:Outlaws did to their stock price.

 

[RavageX]

Playing the game right now and i must say the visuals are amazing, and the gameplay loop is great so far.

I am enjoying it a good bit myself. I usually do like most Creed games, just depends on how a person likes to play. It is sad how in this day and age the idea of races being in a game causes such an uproar...over nothing. It really makes no sense at all.

 

[Saber]

What a bunch of useless metrics.

 

[Fbh]

So as expected, neither a massive bomb nor a big hit.

XDefiant is free to play.

Unbisoft has been reporting players for years, and now people are having an issue with it.

And most of their games have been under performing or bombing for years.

 

[RoboFu]

this game should have a be a 25 million seller. Could have been in a less insane world.

lets looks a the events leading up to the launch of this game.

- game devs praise wokeness in game . Made a Japanese setting with a non Japanese main character.
- Japan boycotts the game for a false representation of Japanese culture.
- Ubisoft fans losing faith but a decent Star Wars game could pull them back in.. its Star Wars .. should be an easy win.
- Ubi puts out an awful and woke Star Wars game further confirming everyone's fears of the new AC.
- Ubisoft goes silent and does last min surgery to the game .. trying make it less woke..
- at launch sold to die hard fans , didn't rank on charts except maybe first week. no one really talked about it, few months after launch no one cares.

 

[DForce]

Assassin's Creed Valhalla reached players faster, but the numbers don't tell the whole story.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows was at or near full price for almost 3 months.


Assassin's Creed Valhalla was also marked down to $34.99 one month after its release.

Daily Deals: 42% Off Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Big Holiday Sale on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Video Games

Daily Deals: 42% Off Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Big Holiday Sale on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Video Games - IGN

There's still time to get Switch, PS4, PS5, and Xbox games in time for Christmas without paying full price

www.ign.com

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is down to its lowest price ever. This game was released just over a month ago and we're already seeing a pretty massive 42% discount.

The price remained around $35.99 up until June, when it was reduced to $22.99.

January



February

Spoiler

March

Spoiler

June

 

[GooseMan69]

It has the best combat and stealth in the series. Too bad it's buried under a mountain of ubislop bloat.

 

[kruis]

3.5M sales approx.

You think that a third of AC:S players subcribed (even for a month) to Ubisoft+?

 

[kruis]

I think it's likely that after this many years and a ridiculous amount of AC games, a lot of people are just worn out and sick of the series. 5 million doesn't seem THAT bad imo. Certainly ain't 12 mil, but it doesn't seem terrible.

It's only been out for 4 months. That number will certainly go up, certainly when it gets a substantial discount right before Black Friday.

 

[damidu]

let it go up chuds, you cant spin this.
makes you look even more foolish than usual.
onto the next matches lol

 

[Denton]

As I said since release, unless the MTX makes bank (and I doubt it does in this game), this game is not reaching profitability any time soon, perhaps ever. Just like Avatar. Just like SW Outlaws.

 

[rofif]

...

 

[Hugare]

I know people want Ubi to fail cause "Ubi bad" and all that, but I'm having fun with this game.

I even dropped DS 2 to play this. Story isnt good (but so is the case with DS 2), but gameplay loop is actually really fun, and the map is gorgeous.

It's an 8/10 game. Helps that I havent played an AC game since Origins.

 

[kazuyamishima]

With around 3m. units sold or so, the game possibly sold most on PS5.

But this is not a flex and Bugisoft should be worried

 

[proandrad]

AC shadows is a 10hr game repeated for 100hrs.

 

[Denton]

AC shadows is a 10hr game repeated for 100hrs.

That is most of Ubi AAA games since 2018 or so.

 

[Killer8]

- at launch sold to die hard fans , didn't rank on charts except maybe first week. no one really talked about it, few months after launch no one cares.

It was the number one selling game in March according to Circana and was still ranked fifth in the following month.

As of June (latest data) it's the third highest ranked game this year in terms of dollar sales:

How is that not ranking on charts?

 

[CLW]

units sold otherwise it's meaningless

 

[freemandos]

That is most of Ubi AAA games since 2007 or so.

Fixed.




Ok, I admit, it's not 100% accurate. Before they were making 2 hour games stretched to 10-15+ (Far Cry 2, Assassin's Creed 1, Prince of Persia 2008, etc). They suffered similar issue though.

 

[Joel Was Right]

Voice dubbing ruined this game for me. Couldn't listen to it in either English or Japanese. Woeful.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Lmao they actually did the MS style "# of zombies killed" meme instead of sales numbers

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

How is that not ranking on charts?

nothing in his list actually happened.

 

[PeteBull]

Just to give u guys comparision:

Assassin's Creed Mirage, which was said to be on par with past successful launches such as Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey currently stands at 5 million players (estimated $250m in revenue).

Inside Ubisoft - From Low Morale To Internal Tensions

From Low Morale To Internal Tensions, let's take a look behind the curtain at Ubisoft, one of the world's biggest gaming companies.

insider-gaming.com

Article is dated 30 jan 2024, mirage launched 5th oct so it made to 5m players in under 4 months ;P
Shadows launched 4 months ago so its matching spin off nobody cared about in terms of playerbase after 4 months too

What a failure lool
If u went back in time and told some1 3years ago mainline AC entry from japan about samurais and shinobi's only gets to 5m players(way less sold copies, maybe 3m if lucky;p) after 4 months any gafer would ask how come ubi fucked it up so badly somehow? And rightfully so

 

[adamsapple]

How should I feel about this, GAF?

Happy. It's a good, fun, game.

 

[The Mad Draklor]

Just to give u guys comparision:

Inside Ubisoft - From Low Morale To Internal Tensions

From Low Morale To Internal Tensions, let's take a look behind the curtain at Ubisoft, one of the world's biggest gaming companies.

insider-gaming.com

Article is dated 30 jan 2024, mirage launched 5th oct so it made to 5m players in under 4 months ;P
Shadows launched 4 months ago so its matching spin off nobody cared about in terms of playerbase after 4 months too

What a failure lool
If u went back in time and told some1 3years ago mainline AC entry from japan about samurais and shinobi's only gets to 5m players(way less sold copies, maybe 3m if lucky;p) only gets to 5m players in 4 months u would ask how ubi fucked it up so badly somehow?

And Mirage likely hit the same metric with a more linear trajectory whereas Shadows immediately plateaued.

 

[PeteBull]

And Mirage likely hit the same metric with a more linear trajectory whereas Shadows immediately plateaued.

Now question is, if mirage had same amount of players in same amout of time, and had estimated 250m usd revenue(not profit, revenue), AC:S has probably somewhat similar one too, maybe even worse since more ppl use subs nowadays than 1,5 year ago so compared to AC:M from the same amount of 5m players we get less sold copies/more subs(and ofc 1sub is worth way less than sold copy).

But lets be generous and assume AC:S made that 250m usd revenue by now, how does it look vs game's budget? How expensive is mainline AC entry in 2025? 2x as much as mirage, maybe 3x? Which means game is definitively in the red, aka big flop, even after full 4 months of sales.

 

[MiguelItUp]

Why can't they just say "sold copies"?

Because this number is inflated by the Ubisoft+ players. Without them, the overall number would surely be lower.

 

[Gilgalaad]

 

[Griffon]

Obfuscation of real sales number doesn't look suspicious at all.

 

[Gaiff]

Obfuscation of real sales number doesn't look suspicious at all.

They've been doing that for 7 years. However, even 5 million sales in 4 months for a game of that caliber is unimpressive.

 

[viveks86]

Happy. It's a good, fun, game.

But but... Gaiff is not happy. How do we spin this to cheer him up?

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

At its peak what were they selling ? 5 million is a good number if they didn't have the global Diversity wokeforce 1000 Devs working on it costing insane figures.

I'll give it a try when it eventually ends up on the subscriptions.