Assassin's Creed Shadows Now Surpasses 2 Million Players in Two Days

Well done, Ubisoft! I'm pleased for you. I'm having a blast playing it!

According to Steam Charts:
AC Shadows day 1 players: 41000
KCD 2 day 1 players: 159000
MH Wilds day 1 players: 1300000

But they said it would bomb? 😆😆😆

Very happy its doing well as its easily the best entry since Origins/Odyssey. Also the music is frigging amazing, the main theme has been in my head all day and won't leave 😅.

@Perturbator AC is a console heavy franchise and its free on the Ubi+ thing so numbers on Steam would be lower. Also its Thursday so numbers would be lower due to that but will no doubt see a new peak over the weekend.

@Kelrics90 You know how much legal trouble they would get for lying about numbers? No studio with an inch of sense would dare "cook the books" so openly

@DennisReynolds Could be you're right and the charts haven't updated properly yet. We'll see tomorrow I guess.

Players don’t equal sales. Keep in mind Ubisoft+ or whatever it’s called exists.

This is like EA claiming “engagement” numbers with Veilguard.

Why do people want this game to fail?

@TimelessJubilee A few judicious google searches will sum things up, and it’s been covered in just about every other ACS comment thread by now. No need to rehash it here for the thousandth time.

Oof I'm not going to sing their praises right now until we hear them at a earnings call. We heard this with Dragon Age Veilguard which had better concurrents at launch on Steam.

I also feel their subscription will hurt potential sales for people who will sub for one or two months and leave later.

We also have to look at the fact that this game is expensive with the delays so even 2 million players won't be enough to be a hit (unlike KCD2 or Split Fiction).

Hopefully WoM is great for this game and it has legs unlike DAV (I am rooting for its success).

I'm sure it'll sell fine, but won't meet Ubisoft's expectations of 8 billion copies in the first 6 minutes.

It's worth keeping in mind that they mention players and not sales. You can play it on PC with a Ubisoft+ subscription, which wouldn't contribute to Steam numbers.

I think most of the controversy around the game is valid, but I've never been interested in the series anyway.

Where does the over 44,000 concurrent number come from? Steamdb has its all-time concurrent number at 41,412, which is close but not quite “over 44,000.”

It should reach a higher concurrent on the weekend anyway, but 1 million players doesn’t really say much as far as sales go when the game is available on Ubisoft’s Ubi+ subscription service.

Playing right now and loving it. I always think it’s cool when Yasuke is depicted as a gentle giant and a wrecking ball in one person. The narrative is also doing a good job at depicting micro aggressions (already got two people that I really hope I get to take out) that exist to this day. I adore playing as Naoe and love how the game succeeds in making her and Yasuke feel different in gameplay. NGL I laughed my arse off at the original box loss scene. Isu genes make bone like vibranium lol. Love that the game lets you live as the characters but doesn’t overstay that. A lot of the fun versatility of AC’s brand of stealth is back and it feels great. I gotta say while I hate the concept of buying skins, the new armors look really good so I will wait on sales. (Translation is a widdle off but not enough to force me to switch to Japanese text) super happy that is an option though.

I’m trying not to be curious about the meta story as I promised myself that I was done since the story has gone off the rails….but that opening reminded me of AC1 and Brotherhood and Liberation and Ubisoft miiight have gotten their claws back in me. But I will hold thoughts on that until I get further along.

But I haven’t felt this good (or this tense) playing an AC game in so long. I will totally be playing this for a long, long time. I do hope it sells well for Ubisoft but if not they did bake the expansion into all purchases so they will essentially give a complete game no matter what.

@TimelessJubilee
Because people got nothing better to do apparently. Sad because the game has been fantastic so far!

I wonder how many copies sold would be enough for Ubisoft to consider it a "success". Too often these companies put unrealistic expectations on their games so I hope it turns out well.

@JackiePriest It's an Assassin's Creed game, with the delays etc I would assume it would have to reach Odysseys sales numbers (with the subscription now I don't know how that works for their estimates).

What is wrong with gamers? Even on here people are like "ooooh Steam player counts" .. what losers. There are other platforms that people play on, and also - why do you care enough to read this article, decide to Google how many players are online on one platform, then comment something about it? Super weird way to spend your time.

I think the game looks fun, I'm not an AC fan but I'll probably pick this up in the future.

The campaign against this game definitely had the opposite effect on me! I haven’t had time to play it yet, but I made sure to pre-order it as soon as the (positive) reviews dropped. Looking forward to diving in this weekend!

Started it today. Great stuff so far and looks amazing on Pro.

@dskatter That doesn't help. Is it because you gamers have nothing better to do? Make sense.

On a serious note. I don't see anything worth wanting this game to fail. You guys are acting like this game punched your mother or something.

Good for Ubisoft
The hype around everything Japan recently is so insane
Wished I could have Japan for "myself" just like 5 to 10 years ago when noone cared or went there. Now it's overrun with tourists and it gets worse by the minute 😞

Do player counts on Steam matter that much? Like, I see someone saying KCD 2 had 160k players on day 1 and it sold 1 million in a day. I’m sure Shadows won’t do those numbers but KCD’s player count wasn’t even close to the sales numbers. I’m thinking many are hoping the 40l+ who are on Steam are the only ones who’ve bought the game lol.

@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy basically everything you said is how I feel. I haven’t played a Creed since the first game (which I hated), but I’ll play this sometime down the line. Just got through Ragnarok and Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown now I’m playing Veilguard. RPG’d out at the moment.

Only? Good bye Ubisoft.

@Perturbator Comparing Steam chart for games have to be one of the most annoying thing ever... Steam doesn't account for every platform you can purchase the games on. MH Wilds can only be purchased on Steam where stuff like KCD and AC: Shadows are on Epic, or Ubisoft's own platform. PC game keys is a big market, and unfortunately... If you want to save money on Assassin Creed Shadows. You're stuck purchasing a Ubisoft Connect key vs a steam key

Six hours in and I’m having a great time. If you’re on the Pro, balanced mode is the way to go. I’ve only had a little chugging when loading into the hideout and that’s it. Buttery smooth everywhere else. It’s an assassins creed game so you know what to expect, but yeah it’s worth a buy if you like open world stuff with exploration and pretty weighty combat.

@Kelrics90 who the hell wants to make play on an office computer ps5 is where it’s at

@AhmadSumadi I agree the concept of people permanently looking at steamDB to calculate success is bad especially for single player games.

I remember it even hurt shares of the Frostpunk studio because shareholders expected more players to play concurrently even though the game was selling well.

Also, most of the gamergate 2.0 nonsense originates from and affects Steam more than the console ecosystems

@Floki people use steam numbers because they are the only real data we get from this industry. They use language like games shipped and active users to disguise low numbers they don’t want published. It’s the exact reason the industry tried to have steam numbers removed from the platform the media releasing this good news puff piece is likely an attempt at countering the negativity that’s currently online in places like Twitter and YouTube. The picture will be a lot clearer in a months time.

Notice how there isn’t a link in this article to any official Ubisoft announcement or news regarding the 1m players? That’s strange I’d like to see this announcement. I can’t see to find it anywhere other than gaming websites.

People seem determined to see this game fail. Suddenly, everyone’s a business and financial expert, picking apart every number just to downplay its potentially early success—almost as if it makes them feel better. It’s honestly pathetic. The so-called gaming community can be unbelievably petty at times.

@TimelessJubilee yes. We have better things to do then explain these things and unearth a bunch of hate. It's all really dumb, but no one here needs to explain it to you.

@DennisReynolds Its the sales that matter Dennis, not players.
Im afraid youve fallen victim to corporate speech.

Its like the SW: Acolyte being the “second most-watched series on Disney Plus for 2024” despite absolutelly tanking.

@JustMyOpinion why would people do thst tho? Gaming community is always there to praise a good game, just look at KCD2, game that also has black people and homosexual romance options.
Why is that?

Its easy to dismiss criticism as “sexist biggot”, but its not always like that.

I'm glad it's doing well out of the gate. I guess all the extra publicity from the haters goes a long way and also shows they are definitely the loudest of the minority. I'll buy this as soon as I'm done with the first berserker khazan. Hope everybody who bought this are having a blast 👍

A lot of games have been falsely reported as successes when they launched by their publishers later find out that their results are much worse.

How about we wait a month to get real figures before starting false narratives of success or failure?

Finally a big W for Ubisoft and I'm pleased to see it.

@species Bless you for not being up to date with the response to KCD2. There was a big controversy about the game going "woke".

@Korgon
Hello, just wondering if you were still playing SF6 and/or GBVR?
Desperately needs training and friendly chit chat lol
Sorry this has nothing to do with AC, I just jumped on the occasion...
I will try Shadows eventually though, it's climbing up my to do list ^^

People being as clueless as ever:

Red Dead Redemption 2 Peak Player Count on Steam at launch: 55,271. Lifetime Sales: 70m.

Some people are not really getting the fact that some genres are console based and some are PC based. Some games sell over time, some sell in launch week primarily.

Single player Action adventure games don’t really do well on Steam. Western RPGs, strategy, simulation games do well on PC, and anything multiplayer. A lot of the Steam playerbase are Asian players that basically only play multiplayer games, that’s why a game like Monster Hunter is big on Steam. Assassin’s creed is not popular in Asia and the western guys are primarily playing CRPGs, Strategy games and Survival Craft games.

Spider-man 2 has a peak player count of 28k, it sold 11m in 6 months on console. Gow: Ragnarok has a peak player count on Steam of 35k, sold 15m on console in 12 months.

I'm not hoping for the down fall of Ubisoft or anything, but for the populairty of the AC franchise, 1M at lauched should be EXPECTED (Not a W as people claim it is), every reviewer I watched said the game played it way too safe, but hey if you're liking the game more power to you.

@MichaelNau
I don't play GBVR but I still play SF6. Granted I'm probably not going to be playing it as much since most of my attention will be on AC for the next few weeks but I'll still hop on here and there.

My PSN is korgon117 if you want to add me though.

@species Why? Because humans are predictably irrational creatures. There is also a growing trend of not accepting anything less than perfection, and a sense of entitlement where things must align with their beliefs, perspectives, preferences - whether that's political, cultural, or ideological.

@Korgon
Alrighty, I ll send you a friend request when I am back from work.
Happy assassinations

N.i.c.e. I'm happy assassin's creed shadows is doing good.well done ubidoft.word up son

Well, the hate mob failed this time. I'm very happy for Ubisoft and all people involved. The click-bait industry can't win every time.

I picked up this game. Even knowing how many haters are out there. I am so far enjoying AC Shadows. The graphics are good. Game mechanics seem fluid. I don't know why all the hate for this game.

As with anything, it’s not how you start but how you finish. First, this is from Ubisoft and no actual statistics are available to back this up.

Second, people like Jason Schreier laughed and mocked “the hate mob” when Veilguard had good numbers to start. The laughter didn’t last long when reality actually set in.

1 million players, does mean 1 million copies sold. People need to realise Ubisoft are finished, unless this sells at least 10 million copies.

I hope this picks up on steam. Looks great and I'd love to get it in support, but can't at full retail price with xenoblade X just releasing and the day only having 24 hours, responsibility, mortality and stuff like that.

@Kelrics90 jeeeez man. Seriously…..

@Buckster666 not true though is it.

But but but....it has a black man in it :'-(

Played about 2 hours and i like it but they need to overhaul the combat system. It just doesnt feel right, same with not being able to assassinate certain bosses

they probably need 10 mill. to break even.

I think its great , looks fantastic , the grappling hook is getting on my nerves at the minute, I'm finding it hard to find places to connect it to , it's early game so I'm hoping it can be upgraded , the mysterious narrator at the begining kept repeating that sometimes memories of history can be twisted , she said it about 3 times , wonder if that was added after all the nonsense , anyway ,its a great game and deserves some success , hopefully it's not to vilified by those that have no intention of playing it.

@species people went mental over the hans /henry optional kiss though , to be fair it was a bit out of character for those two.

@species there’s a lot of “Oh, it’s gone woke” chatter out there about KCD 2. Difference is, the main character isn’t a Black guy. See, there’s a difference. When the Black guy is in the background, there’s noise about him if people feel he doesn’t belong. But it’s not a loud noise. But put him at the forefront and you get the level of vitriol that is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.

@ChrisDeku All your examples are games that released much later on Steam/PC than console.

The most unseemly thing to me is that AAA gaming is already in a crisis, as is Ubisoft, so the odds are seemingly already stacked against this game. And the “anti-woke” mob is dying to swoop in a claim any perceived shortfall as vindication for their bigotry. It’s pathetic.

@Perturbator

Star Wars: Jedi: Fallen order - 46k peak player count on Steam, 8m sales in 2 months.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - 62k Peak Player count on Steam, sold at least 10m copies

Btw for people comparing it to steam numbers for something like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, on PS profile tracking websites Assassin’s creed: Shadows has roughly 4x as many people playing it day one as KC:D2.

That highlights how games differ across platforms.

This article is certainly charged. There’s a way to report on this without resorting to incendiary lines like “Perhaps the threat of reprisals from Ubisoft for any unwarranted review-bombing campaigns has bad actors running scared?” - which does little more than make you sound like a third-rate gossip rag.

Ubisoft's success is commendable, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Ubisoft+ exists, which is likely why they’re touting “one million players” rather than “one million sales.” Perhaps save the victory lap and smug commentary until actual financial ROI figures are reported.

After all, Veilguard also received glowing praise for its initial player count, and gaming outlets were quick to sing its praises. Yet here we are - its sales fell below expectations, as many of those early players accessed the game via EA subscriptions before promptly canceling.

At the end of the day, you’re supposed to be a journalist. Maybe focus on reporting rather than fanning the flames? Bias has its place in reviews and personal blogs - not in what should be an objective coverage like this.

@ChrisDeku Those examples are more fair, although they are from quite a while ago (6-7 years ago) whilst KCD2 and MHW are recent releases which were originally supposed to go head to head with Shadows in February, until that was delayed to March instead.

There may be some differences between console and PC gamer habits, but if anything I'd say that Monster Hunter has a more defined console background than Assassin's Creed.

I guess we'll only know Shadows real sales numbers whenever Ubisoft wants to disclose them, though.

It's a a darn decent game and deserves to do well. It's basically "just another AC". Everyone knows the drill. It's more of the same. Nothing unexpected or remarkable. Like buying a Big Mac, you know what you are getting.

If you like the prior games (sales figures don't lie, it's a popular series) you will like this. That simple.

Done. That's the end of the discourse. That's all that ever needed to be said.

The nefarious people spreading lies and controversy are on both sides of the fence.

From the grifting Youtubers trying to stir up rage for easy ad revenue (who nearly duped me until I played Avowed and realised they are liars), to the unethical journalists smearing their entire audience, stirring up an even bigger backlash against the game and themselves, and hastening the end of their business model.

Sick of the lot of them. No time for either side.

As for these numbers, there is so much misinformation, it's hard to tell. We heard the fiddled numbers for Veilguard which included people playing it for ten minutes on a sub service and promptly uninstalling.

I hope Shadows did well, as I want more open world AC games.

@Boucho11 it it true, regardless what your opinion about the game. The reality is unless this sells big time, then it is game over for ubisoft

@lazarus11
@AhmadSumadi I was blistfully unaware of the KCD2 drama. I guess i was wrong, gamers are bunch of toxic a-holes :/

I'm glad to see the game is doing well. The online echo chamber for Hogwarts Legacy, KCD2, and this game didn't impact sales and player counts.

@QiaraIris Couldn't have said it better. The flagrant toxic positivity around this game by the games media can only result in two parallel outcomes:
1) Fuel the very negativity it's trying to combat.
2) Reduce the public's trust even further in case things turn out like Veilguard.

@species and the game is selling well by all accounts so....

@Art_Vandelay Nah people are just fed up with racists and incels trying to turn every new release into a culture war battle.

@DennisReynolds It has less players on steam than Veilguard. N̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶u̶m̶b̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶e̶a̶d̶y̶ ̶d̶r̶o̶p̶p̶i̶n̶g̶,̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶o̶n̶d̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶a̶f̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶.̶ Granted, thats mostly cause of the ubisoft launcher, but even if steam players are 1/3 of all players its still pretty bad.

Especially considering Ubisoft needs amazing sales(around 10mil) to dug themselves out of the financial hole they made.

So… what accounts do you speak of Dennis?

Edit- fact check

@species AC is a console heavy franchise, AC was never big on Steam (no entry has crossed 100K), its on Epic, its free with Ubi+ and its not even the weekend. Seriously nearly 50K players on Steam with all those things accounted for is pretty good. 1M people are playing it and its topped PS5 charts that's all we have to go on and both are good things. We all know racists, incels and culture war warriors are begging for it to fail but that fact is all the signs are pointing it to be a success. Its even doing well in user reviews with Mostly Positive on Steam and 4.70/5 on PS5.

Public companies like EA and Ubi have to disclose some figures for shareholders. Fudging those numbers could leave them vulnerable to legal action. Thus, EA had to disclose that DA the Veilguard had 1.5 million engagement. Disclosing numbers sold would likely have a negative effect on stock price. Ubi already admitted softer units sold on Staw Wars Outlaws.

By March 2026, we will have official units sold or engagement figures from the company itself.

Soo players, not sold? I understand why games publishers hate steam, we the players can actually know of the game successfull or not by watching steam chart so games publishers can't lie to its investors.

@DennisReynolds Oh man, youre like a walking confirmation bias.

Let me tell you how this conversation goes further.
I can tell you that early steam reviews are buyers remorse or fanboys putting good review wirhout even completing tutorial.
I could point you to metacritic, but then you’ll say its just racist, bigots, elon musk and the devil himself “review bombing”.

So lets not do any of that and just wait for the inevitable “ubisoft lost 50% market share” article thats sure as hell coming in a few weeks.

Edit - Just for the record i do agree that there are racists and bigots thst want the game to fail, but the percentile is soo tiny its negligible. Youve been reading too much Kotaku and are drawing a devil on the wall.
Also the game, while not bad, is not great. Which is what ubisoft needed. After playing it a bit on PC i would say its 6.

All the idiots basement huggers and half assed wannabe racist probably going to be quiet at least for awhile , I hope shadows keeps growing in popularity, it's very polished and some serious fun, especially with Yaskue, such a brute, it's almost a different game switching to him. Well done to Ubisoft, delays seem to be worth it

@wiiware that’s exactly why Microsoft want to buy it! Steam is far too user friendly for this industry and the big players hate it. They want to tell you what’s good and successful! They hate they they can’t control the narrative.

The game looks fantastic. Sometimes people forget the historical accuracy of the scenery in AC titles; attention to detail whilst the graphics is just getting better. They probably didn’t have too much to work with hey piccolo there’s a lot of bush and combat is I’m still like okay haha but look at the weapons you’re flailing here.And traversal can be awkward with the dense bamboo and those Japanese building stacked like multiple roof burgers but jank is cut down a deal. There’s some crazy masks!

@species As predicted you never really addressed what i've said.

Also yeah MC user reviews have no weight why because anyone can post a review on it while Steam requires you to own the game as does PS with its scoring system hence why i highlighted those two.

@Boxmonkey MS doesn't want to buy Steam and Valve would never sell.

@Uromastryx Nah, they're still crying about the game and how it's the worst thing to happen in history because of Yasuke. Crazy how one black guy in a video game has completely and utterly destroyed their minds.

I just picture them waking up and Yasuke is literally the first thing in their heads doing that Shrek smile at them, that one where he's crouched down and then looks up smiling lol.

@DennisReynolds Whats there to adress? Your arguments are as biased as the “racist bigots” arguments are, just in a different direction.
You could say that day one steam reviews are even worse than metacritic, most of those people didnt even complete tutorial and are influenced by buyers remorse.
Its funny to see how concretly you take those data.

I said so myself, even tho steam isnt the only platform, its the only reliable data we have and they dont tell a good story for ubisoft.

Its not a complete disaster as Outlaws was, but Ubisoft really needed 9 or 10 to pull out of the hole they dug themselves into and this game is 6 or 7 at best.

@TruestoryYep but I don't get it, it's not like it's first AC with a coloured person as a lead,.but people just want to complain,.they feel theyve been wronged somehow,.how about they get past it and move on with themselves

@species What's the other reliable and why isn't good for Ubi? I'm bias to towards facts and so far the facts point to it being success and going down well with players. I think your bias is showing as well. As i said you never addressed everything i said and its because you know its true, its a console heavy series, the series has never been strong on Steam, its free with Ubi+ and its on Epic so all those things will impact the Steam player count.

@DennisReynolds Ive acknowledged all those things. Only hard fact we have are steam charts and even taking everything you said into consideration the steam data dont tell a good story.

Id like to think i dont have a horse in this race, all im saying is that ubisoft needed this game to be and do amazing. Its only doing “meh”.
Which will not be nealy good enough to meet Ubis expectations.
Again, that is all im saying.

@species "most of those people didnt even complete tutorial and are influenced by buyers remorse."

This seems odd to me.

As I've said in other posts, it's "just another AC".

I doubt there are many gamers who haven't experienced Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla or Mirage.

Shadows is more of the same. There is no surprise. Everyone knows if they will like it or not before buying.

It's like me taking a day trip to London and going in a Mac D for lunch.

I've had a Mac D before. If I hadn't liked it, why would I have gone in the London branch?

If I did like it previously, I'd have found the exact same experience/product I was expecting in the London branch.

This is not a Veilguard situation, where Mac D in London has been hijacked by a new group of people and turned into a sushi restaurant.

This Shadows situation smells funny. An awful lot of people who would have played previous games and known they don’t like it, still went out and played Shadows. Why?

I suspect people deliberately bought it with the intent to do the <2 hour refund in Steam, just so they could write a negative review out of spite.

Very sad behaviour.

I’ve played Souls games. I know I don’t like them. So I wouldn’t buy the latest souls-like, give it a bad review and then refund it before I reached 2 hours. That would not be healthy behavior.

@QiaraIris Spot on. Tried calling them out for this the other day and got the rule book thrown at me. This kind of "journalism" is starting to do my head in.

Player numbers means nothing. We need to wait for sales data or a Ubisoft earnings call to find out the actual impact ACS has had. I'm assuming they are hoping for well north of 10 million copies sold, so let's see shall we.

I'm around the 15 hour mark and its starting to become one of my favourite entries. The world, stealth, visuals and music are just standout.

@species 2M players now. You can cling to Steam numbers all you want but i suggest you check the peak numbers for past entries if you want to by Steam.

So two million copies in two days, and an 81 metacritic on Playstation and 85 on Xbox? This seems like it's a big W for Ubisoft and one they definitely needed. The game is going down well with critics and rightly so it's a very good game with beautiful visuals as well. I'd say it's the next best thing from Tsushima for that Japanese setting, so far its a lot better than Rise of the Ronin as well.

@SleepyNick Player numbers mean everything. The games industry has changed. Ubisoft put this on their subscription service day one because their primary goal isn't to sell copies of this game, it's to sell subscriptions. Player numbers (that is, a metric that includes how well Ubisofts primary goal of using this game to keep and increase subscribers) is the only metric for measuring "success" that matters now. They're "hoping" for 0 copies sold because that would mean everyone playing it did so by buying their subscription. That is, they'd rather have 2 million people playing it on the subscription than selling 2 million copies of the game.

This is because due to how people think about subscriptions, they often end up paying more money to play a game on subscription than if they'd just bought a copy. People will sub for a month to play the new game, and then forget to unsub and 8 months later they're still subbed for that one game, having paid more in sub fees than a copy of the game would cost.

Still only 51k players on steam charts, if everyone is playing it for "free" or cheap on a subscription...are they really going to turn a profit?

@Perturbator again, who gives a *****

This is one entertaining comment section. 😂

@Wiceheid Fair enough, I wasn't aware Ubisoft had a subscription service where you can play their brand new games. Does make me wonder how many other players are aware that Ubi has a subscription service and how much that actually affects things.

I'm sure they're hoping to sell some copies! But of course, it would be great for them if people subscribe and forget to cancel even though they are not using it - just like my gym membership.

@DennisReynolds I feel like our problem is that youre saying “its just another AC, its as good as AC gets”

And all im trying ot say is thst Ubisoft needed more than that. And its not more than that.

You love to see it

It’s brilliant
I can never really get into them but this year - sold
I just play as the assassin

@Boxmonkey It's kind of sad and tiring that's only one games store (valve steam) show good faith to gamers while all others gaming corporations are hostile to gamers. I'm still hoping for 2 hour refund on sony and nintendo store 😕

Good, I’m loving it so far, already way more invested than I was for Odyssey, Valhalla and Mirage.

People who are getting mad or even straight-up furious about a good game having good reception just have a sad life…

@species

Not only that, but the numbers are already dropping, second day after release

This is an outright lie that can be checked in 30 seconds.

Peak Concurrent user count per day:

Thursday - 41,412
Friday - 47,616
Saturday - 59,620(currently)

Amazing how many people think Steam concurrent numbers are the end all, be all of a game's success. It only tells you about the PC market. Only tells you about Steam players, at that. And only tells you how many people are playing simultaneously. It's absolutely correlated to a game's holistic success. But low/high numbers doesn't necessarily mean low/high sales. Especially the more the series is associated with consoles. It's a pretty poor data point to base lifetime sales on.

As for Ubisoft's number — let me first say how funny it is people are arguing total player count is irrelevant while saying concurrent player count on one platform is the whole story. People are respectfully privy to the diction of 'players' rather than 'sales.' But, even then, a conservative estimate is that 60% of players actually bought the game — not gonna look into U+ numbers right now, but that seems like a decent estimate. So, what, a little over a million copies sold in two days? I don't know if that's what Ubisoft needs, but that's still pretty good for a AAA release. I think it's a little silly to try and position this as a failure given our current info. Premature to call it a success too — sure — but given critical reception and player count numbers, things are looking up. I don't even think the concurrent numbers seem THAT bad, but I wouldn't expect Steam to account for most AC sales anyway.

@DennisReynolds Only 6-7 hours in and there’s just no way this game sits below an 80, I’d even say it’s a 90-95 so far, looks impressive, gameplay is fun, story is interesting. Best AC game since Origins imo.

@TimelessJubilee
"Why do people want this game to fail?"

Its not just the game - its the whole studio they want to fail in a number of cases, im afraid.
There may be subtly different reasons but its exactly the same as DAV last year.

Its because some people are only really interested in pushing their hateful agendas, than playing (what through reviews has shown to be) a good game.
Then, others are completely oblivious to the fact that they are being (easily) influenced by those with these hateful agendas - and are probably believing the whole conspiracy rubbish about review scores being bought/inflated/etc.

It may not be everyone's 'cup of tea' (eg I wont be buying until they sort the 30fps hub area) but thats a far cry from the 'dog piling' that appears to be going on here, and was prevalent for DAV last year. Sad, just sad.

I look forward to playing it, but will wait until it's at least 50% off, which shouldn't take too long with Ubisoft's track record of sales. I bought a bunch of their older games for 70+% off in the latest Steam sale. It'll be interesting to hear what actual sales are versus number of players. I wonder how many people get a month of the UPlay subscription to play it on PC or Xbox and then cancel once they finish it.

My guess is that people are mostly upset at Ubisoft communication. As good as the game is, it's obviously not a record breaking success. Ubisoft should really show more humility. But yeah I know, they are right now trying to stabilize their stock and calm stakeholders. If you look at Ubisoft stock, it plunged by 10% over the past 5 days. It doesn't look like ACS has overturned anything.

@ItsAlwaysSunnyyy You, obviously.

And Ubisoft, likely.

@species how ironic.

It didn't absolutely tank. It almost doubled the much lauded X-men 97's numbers:

The Acolyte was canceled in August last year; Disney remained silent about the cancelation until Alan Bergman - co-chair of Disney Entertainment, responsible for overseeing the company’s content creation and platforms - addressed it in an end-of-year review. "We were happy with our performance," he explained, "but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season two. So that’s the reason why we didn’t do that." https://screenrant.com/star-wars-the-acolyte-disney-plus-2024-viewership-good/

@Rich33 very well said. Especially the second point.

@Uromastryx nah, they'll twist the truth as much as possible just to confirm their bias. They're already doing it.

@TimelessJubilee If the game is fun I'll buy it. The other stuff is why I don't bother w social media. But you're right! I'm a huge loser. Right now, I'm a loser in Bermuda playing Xenoblade Chronicles X though.

So glad the game is doing great and I’m really enjoying it.
Now perhaps all those whiny, whinging, witless wonders, will go away and leave our gaming alone.

@naruball So it didnt make enough money to justify its existence. I dont know what other definition of “tanked” you need.

It doesnt matter how many people watched it or what reviews does it get. What matters is if it makes money.

Thats exactly what im saying about shadows, it may be good, but unless it sells the crazy ammount of copies ubisoft needs, it will be a failirue for them.

@ChrisDeku Oh *****, im sorry, my bad. Inwas chexking the wrong numbers.

Ill edit my original post.

@naruball
Thank you. The problem is some people continue to be 'influenced' by others, who in the most part have little or no interest in gaming, and are actually seriously harming the industry.

Eg the people who hoped Bioware would fail - even the most hardcore 'old school' DA fan, who genuinely thought the series was going in the wrong direction 'away from its roots' (im not saying thats the case as I liked the new direction, just using a real example), would have to have been completely stupid to wish for the studio to fail.
No studio means small chance of remasters of early games, and no chance of a sequel where the team did decide to 'go back to their roots'. It literally benefits no one who loves this hobby.

Sorry, rant over!

But the grifters said it failed and we know full well they're an honest group of high brow intellectuals who at no point resort to making things up to suit a narrative.

On pc and Xbox, with Ubisoft plus, you aren't paying anything other than a sub for the game.

However I do think the steam player counts do indicate that this is a far more luke warm reception in sales. That's Ubisoft own fault and likely why they are focusing on players.

For one there is no real reason to play this at full retail other than fomo, as Ubisoft devalue their own titles by ALWAYS PUTTING THEM ON SALE very early on. Secondly you couple that with the mid game played that before tired formula that has become all of their major ips, it just makes the wait for sale decision earlier.

If you pay attention when these release window hype stories come out the ones that highlight players literally during the release week versus the ones that highlights sales a few weeks after release you can tell what the motive is for making such a Cherry Picked announcement. It's to get more sales.... Or it's a live service game where thatetric means something.

Players versus copies sold are two very different metrics.

Nobody is saying this game failed. Many are just accurately saying it's a game you've played before and ubisoft failed to innovate in any meaningful way alongside delivering a garbage story all wrapped up in a bloated design philosophy designed to lull you into considering their monetization schemes... These ac games have consistently sold at least 10 mill for more than a decade. They also consistently get the same review for every game they put out......

The failure is in game design and mgmt. These games fade into obscurity just like the gameplay fades into monotonous drivvle very early on. Then everyone including games media says what they really think post release window...

Nobody wants these games to fail. We want change and we see the direction boardroom driven greed is taking our beloved medium. It is no Measure of healthy to be profoundly well adjusted to a sick society.

Yeah, I'm happy for them. How anyone could play through the prologue and not find it absolutely gorgeous is beyond me. The 40fps mode is a win too!

Players are a lot different than sales.

@naruball Tanked or not, it was so so bad. Disney just destroy. Look at Snow White. That is in the process of sinking faster than the titanic.

Players but not sales?

But hey, i guess that's a good news for Ubisoft 🍻

Reporting player numbers and not sales is an interesting move.

@Apollo2212 quality is arguable. But it most certainly didn't tank. It performed well, but not well enough to justify its huge budget. Simple as that

All the haters having to drink LOTSSS of salt water, I am truly loving this.

@NintenGuy They’ve done this since Odyssey I believe, not out of the blue; it’s just an easy way to merge pure sales and their 20 dollar subscription service to look nicer for shareholders, but steam charts are already suggesting great amounts of pure sales.

Very weird to compare steam all time numbers of Valhalla with Shadows. Valhalla didn't launch on steam so obviously the all time players for that would be lower. Its not a flex for Shadows to beat that...

lol so many people jumping to conclusions based on very tentative early data to support a narrative. But just the game launching on Steam is significantly different enough that I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from Steam data related to other games in the series.

The game was never going to bomb. Will it sell enough millions to be properly profitable for Ubisoft? Possibly.

I could see a scenario where the 'controversy,' as with Hogwarts Legacy, actually makes people MORE interested in it, but it remains to be seen.

Just checked Steam Charts. It's nowhere near no.1. It's sitting in 31st place atm on Steam.

the game launching on Steam is significantly different enough that I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from Steam data related to other games in the series

Origins and Odyssey also launched on Steam, Valhalla is actually the outlier.

@naruball You know it's bad when disney report it as minutes watched. By the time it reached the finale it had a 67% drop off according to nielson.

@jedinite whoever said it’s #1? The #1 game has nearly 2 million concurrent players. Assassins Creed wasn’t beating that even without those who intend for it to fail.

@Apollo2212 as opposed to all the other shows and video games that every single person has watched/played through the end, right?