Assassin's Creed Shadows Is Quite Popular After All
It’s been really quiet from certain corners of the internet.
For months, a vocal minority worked up a big fuss over Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Black protagonist, going as far as harassing developers at Ubisoft Quebec and trying to organize a boycott of the hotly anticipated game. Well, it seems these misguided efforts were a total waste of time. No matter how you slice it, the troubled publisher has a hit on its hands.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the most successful games in the nearly 20-year-old franchise, a source with the publisher disclosed to IGN. It had the second-highest day-one sales revenue in the franchise’s history. It was also Ubisoft’s biggest launch on the PlayStation Store and set a franchise record high for the number of concurrent players on Steam.
Shadows is second only to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in terms of revenue, according to Ubisoft. But there are quite a few caveats to consider when comparing Shadows to the last mainline entry in the series. For one, Valhalla was available across the last and current generation consoles. Valhalla was a launch title for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, making the recognizable franchise an easy and safe bet for early adopters. There’s also the fact that Valhalla launched less than a year into the lockdown, when gaming was more popular than ever.
“It was a perfect storm we may never see again,” the source told IGN. “That’s why it’s more meaningful to compare Shadows to entries like Origins, Odyssey, and Mirage — games released in more typical cycles. And in that frame, Shadows is already setting a new bar.”
Shadows seems to be off to a great start. The game received positive reviews from critics and players alike. Ubisoft announced the game had reached more than two million players just two days after launch.
“We couldn’t be happier that this game, set in a location nearly every AC fan and dev has dreamed about for over a decade, has finally become a reality and is now in your hands,” the dev team wrote to players. “Thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support since our announcement last year. The road has been long and challenging at times, but we deeply appreciate your patience, energy, and love.”
In addition to how Shadows’ success stacks up against past entries, Ubisoft revealed that at least 27 percent of those playing are on PC, crediting Steam for playing a “major role.” Shadows is Ubisoft’s first game in seven years to launch on the popular digital storefront, a smart change that was only instated after the middling sales of Star Wars Outlaws.
Shadows has seemingly found success at the expense of certain fringe but vocal sectors of the internet that decried the game from the moment it was revealed. Despite the series never presenting itself as a factual recounting of history, these grifters questioned the legitimacy of Yasuke, a Black samurai who, by all accounts, did exist. They tried to stir up a ruckus about how the game was the product of supposedly nefarious industry consultants forcing diversity and political correctness in their video games. They even tried to get Japanese audiences to get involved. Instead, only unpopular Japanese politicians seeking reelection took the bait, while actual Japanese developers like Hideki Kamiya defended Ubisoft Quebec’s vision.
In reality, they’ve been inciting a meaningless culture battle to game an algorithm that pays them to do nothing but complain on the internet for a living. And now that their low-effort meal ticket hasn’t gone according to plan, these lames are resorting to bad-faith clips of the game being played poorly and using anti-LGBTQ dog whistles to desperately stir outrage among the few who still have the hateful energy. Pretty pathetic indeed.
The worst people on the internet tried to incite a culture war over a video game that a lot of people wanted to play.
While Shadows has found an audience, it’s unclear whether it will be enough to turn the tide of Ubisoft’s publishing business. The company has been in dire straits after a string of duds, like XDefiant and Skull and Bones, cancellations like The Division: Heartland, and baffling decisions like releasing an NFT game well past the fad’s popularity. While it’s managed to cut deals with companies like Microsoft to stop the hemorrhaging, its leadership has also been courting interest from publishers to buy a stake in some of its IP.
For players enjoying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there’s plenty to look forward to. In addition to its free battle pass-type mechanic called Projects, the game will get an expansion called Claws of Awaji later this year, adding at least 10 hours of gameplay.
Looking beyond post-launch support for Shadows, already know that the next game in the franchise is being dubbed Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe. It is set during the witch trials of the Holy Roman Empire. Codename Hexe is expected to be released sometime in 2026.
