Simply three days after its launch date, Murderer’s Creed Shadows has hit one more milestone and handed 2 million gamers. In accordance with Ubisoft, “Murderer’s Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey.”
Shadows had already sailed previous 1 million gamers in its first 24 hours, simply breaking AC Valhalla’s file. To place that into perspective, when Valhalla launched in 2020, Ubisoft claimed it was its largest PC launch ever (though the sport’s Steam playerbase stays smaller than different video games within the AC franchise). 5 years later, Shadows appears to have eclipsed even that.
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This record-breaking wave of gamers at launch is thanks partially to the truth that Ubisoft did not wait to launch Shadows on Steam—Valhalla did not arrive on Steam till a full two years after its unique launch date. Which will clarify why Valhalla has far fewer gamers on Steam than Shadows, Odyssey, and Origins, which had been all out there on Steam at launch.
On the time of writing, Shadows’ all-time peak concurrent participant depend on Steam is hovering at simply over 60,000, inside spitting distance of Odyssey’s file of 62,069, however far past Origins (41,551) and Valhalla (15,679). If Shadows continues to draw new gamers at this fee, it might cross Odyssey’s file in a matter of days.
In truth, Shadows is on monitor to be one of many largest recreation releases of the yr. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was hailed as successful earlier this yr and took two weeks to hit 2 million gamers, a milestone Shadows reached in only a few days.
Shadows’ success is a much-needed win for Ubisoft, which had a tough yr in 2024 and was counting on Shadows to show issues round. After a string of flops like Star Wars Outlaws and Cranium and Bones, Shadows is a breath of contemporary air that could not have come at a greater time.
Ubisoft is reportedly in talks with Tencent to spend money on a brand new IP unit that can embrace the Murderer’s Creed franchise. This deal might give Tencent, already one in every of Ubisoft’s largest shareholders, a good greater hand in controlling future Murderer’s Creed video games. Shadows’ success might assist bolster Ubisoft’s confidence and maintain off a full-on possession change on the firm (which has additionally been rumored) in the meanwhile.
Gamers do not appear to have been deterred by the tradition conflict “controversy” drummed up within the lead-up to Murderer’s Creed Shadows, which noticed predominantly western influencers and different commentators spreading a racist response to Black samurai co-protagonist Yasuke via complaints of “historic accuracy”— even though Yasuke was an actual particular person and the primary Black Samurai. These so-called historical past buffs are suspiciously quiet on The Final Samurai starring Tom Cruise.
Each Ubisoft and the Murderer’s Creed subreddit in the end mentioned sufficient is sufficient, refusing to present the outrage cycle extra oxygen. The sport has acquired principally constructive critiques, together with 81.7% of Steam critiques on the time of writing.
PC Gamer’s Morgan Park gave Shadows a rating of 80% and centered on the precise gameplay moderately than the debates surrounding Shadows’ illustration and Ubisoft’s financials, stating, “As analysts prepared their takes on what Shadows means for the way forward for the trade’s previous giants and their big open world video games, I’ve bought an easier query to reply: Is Shadows enjoyable?
I am so glad that one is a simple sure. Shadows is among the most enjoyable I’ve had with a stealth recreation in a decade, and impressively, it additionally has the very best, stickiest fight this sequence has seen.”