Assassin’s Creed Shadows set a record for the most players on Steam of any game in the series
By ForGeeks The latest installment in Ubisoft’s acclaimed series – Assassin’s Creed Shadows – has become the franchise’s most popular game on Steam in terms of concurrent users just days after its release. According to the statistics, the RPG action game set in feudal Japanpassed all of its predecessors, including Valhalla, Odyssey, Mirage and Origins.
The release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows took place on Thursday, March 20, and by Sunday, March 23, the peak number of concurrent players on Steam reached 64,825. The previous record was held by Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with 62,069 users.
Although Ubisoft has bigger hits in its arsenal in terms of overall online engagement – For Honor, Rainbow Six Siege, The Division and Far Cry 5 – no other Assassin’s Creed game has so far shown such high engagement on PC immediately after release.
It’s important to note that not all installments in the series launched on Steam at the same time as other platforms. However Odyssey, Origins and now Shadows were released on Valve’s store on release day, making the comparison more valid. The next most popular games after Shadows and Odyssey remain Origins and Black Flag.
In the wake of the record, the project continues to be hotly debated in the community. The voice actress for Naoe’s character, Masumi, admitted in an interview with PCGamesN that despite criticism of the game, she’s “thrilled with how people are embracing the game”. Ubisoft has already managed to release a small patch on release day that addressed one of the controversial mechanics.
Players are also finding secret tweaks that make Naoa’s hidden blade more similar in feel to the classic version from earlier parts of the franchise. And the interest in elements such as legendary sumi-e scrolls, hidden fighters, and in-game Mon currency speaks to high audience engagement.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows seems to have not only gotten off to a solid start, but also is poised to set a new tone for future games in the series.
