Assassin's Creed Shadows is the franchise's second biggest launch of all time, Ubisoft says not to compare it to Valhalla
Assassin's Creed Shadows is reportedly the series' second largest launch to date, trailing only 2020's Valhalla. However, Ubisoft told employees in an internal email that comparing the two is unfair given their unique circumstances.
The details:
As reported by IGN, an internal email seen by the publication confirms that Shadows had the second-highest day-one sales of any of the franchise's main releases, trailing only Valhalla and outperforming Origins and Odyssey. It was also Ubisoft's biggest day-one launch on the PlayStation Store, as well as the most wishlisted title on the platform.
Shadows was also the first Ubisoft game to be released on day one on Steam rather than its own platform or the Epic Games Store since 2019. This resulted in approximately 27% of "activations" occurring on PC, with Steam playing "a major role." The figure most likely includes sales from all storefronts, as well as downloads through the publisher's Ubisoft+ subscription service.
The company also explained in an internal email that, while sales are not as strong as Valhalla's launch, comparing the two releases is unfair as the latter benefited from a "perfect storm." Valhalla was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the current generation of consoles also arrived that year, meaning players were looking for new games to play during lockdown. Instead, Ubisoft believes it is "more meaningful" to compare Shadows with Origins, Odyssey, and Mirage, and that the game's release in March rather than close to Thanksgiving resulted in a lower sales boost than usual.
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