"Assassin's Creed Shadows Surpasses 2 Million Players in Two Days, Outperforms Origins and Odyssey"

Ubisoft has celebrated a significant milestone for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, announcing that the game has attracted 2 million players since its launch on March 20. This figure marks a notable increase from the 1 million players it achieved on its debut day. Ubisoft proudly noted that this surpasses the launch performance of both Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, expressing gratitude to fans with the message, "Thank you for joining the journey in Feudal Japan!"

Despite this impressive player count, Ubisoft has not yet disclosed specific sales figures for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. However, the game has quickly risen to become the top-selling title on Steam, where Ubisoft recently made a return following years of exclusive PC launches on the Epic Games Store. At the time of writing, Assassin’s Creed Shadows boasted 58,894 concurrent players on Steam, placing it within the top 30 most-played games on Valve's platform. Analysts anticipate that this number will continue to grow over the game's opening weekend.

For context, Assassin’s Creed Origins reached a peak of 41,551 concurrent players on Steam, while Odyssey hit 62,069. Given these figures, it's likely that Shadows will soon claim the title of the most-played Assassin’s Creed game on Steam.

It's important to note that these numbers only reflect Steam's statistics. The true concurrent peak for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is undoubtedly higher, considering its availability on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, though Sony and Microsoft do not release player counts.

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The success of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is critical for Ubisoft, especially after the multiple delays and the underwhelming sales of last year's Star Wars Outlaws. The company has faced numerous challenges, including high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations leading up to Shadows' release. The situation became so dire that the Guillemot family, Ubisoft's founders and largest shareholders, reportedly engaged in discussions with Tencent and other investors about a potential buyout to maintain control.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows itself has not been immune to controversy, particularly in Japan. This week, IGN revealed that Ubisoft released a day-one patch for the game, addressing concerns raised by some Japanese politicians regarding the depiction of temples and shrines. The issue was significant enough to be discussed in an official government meeting between Japanese politician Hiroyuki Kada and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

On Steam, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has received a 'very positive' user review rating, with 81% of over 6,000 reviews being positive. IGN’s review awarded the game an 8/10, praising it for refining the open-world formula Ubisoft has developed over the last decade.

For those eager to explore feudal Japan in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, our comprehensive guide offers a detailed walkthrough, an interactive map, and insights into aspects the game doesn't explicitly explain.

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