"Assassin’s Creed Shadows Hits 1 Million Players on Launch Day: Ubisoft"

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows has made a strong debut, with Ubisoft announcing that over 1 million players joined the game on its launch day.

Released globally for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on March 20, 2025, the game quickly gained traction. Just before 4 p.m. local time in Canada, Ubisoft shared the milestone via social media, expressing their excitement to the community:

“It's not even 4pm here in Canada and Assassin's Creed Shadows has already passed 1 million players! Thank YOU from the bottom of our hearts for joining this adventure in Feudal Japan. We are beyond excited to start this journey with you!”

While reaching 1 million players within the first 24 hours is a notable success, concrete sales figures or revenue targets have yet to be disclosed by Ubisoft. However, early data points suggest the game is performing well commercially.

As of launch, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the top-selling title on Steam by revenue—indicating it is generating more income than any other game currently available on the platform. This metric gives a strong early signal of its popularity among PC gamers.

Steam also reported a peak concurrent player count of 41,412 on launch day. Given that the release occurred on a Thursday, analysts expect these numbers to rise as players join during the weekend. Ubisoft typically sees a spike in engagement during weekends, so a clearer performance picture will emerge in the coming weeks.

For comparison, BioWare’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard, released earlier in 2024, peaked at 70,414 concurrent players on Steam during its launch week.

[ttpp]The Complete Assassin's Creed Timeline[/ttpp]

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The commercial success of Assassin’s Creed Shadows carries significant weight for Ubisoft. Following multiple delays and the underwhelming performance of last year’s Star Wars Outlaws, the company has faced a turbulent period marked by several high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and canceled projects.

Additionally, the game has not been without controversy. In Japan, concerns were raised about the depiction of temples and shrines in-game. In response, Ubisoft quietly deployed a day-one patch altering those elements. This sparked discussion at the highest levels of Japanese government when politician Hiroyuki Kada brought up Assassin’s Creed Shadows in an official parliamentary session, prompting a response from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Despite these challenges, early reception from players has been largely positive. On Steam, Assassin’s Creed Shadows holds a “very positive” user review rating, with 82% of nearly 4,000 reviews being favorable. IGN awarded the game an 8/10, praising it for refining long-standing systems into one of the best iterations of the series’ open-world design.

Amidst the game’s launch success, reports indicate that Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family has been in talks with Chinese tech giant Tencent and other potential investors regarding a strategic buyout deal. The goal of such a move would reportedly be to retain control over the company while securing financial stability.

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