Assassin's Creed Shadows has made a strong debut for Ubisoft, hitting a key milestone that matters most to major game publishers—sales—earning a solid "pretty good" verdict.

Ubisoft recently shared two key updates about Assassin's Creed Shadows, a title that quickly outperformed past entries like Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Steam at launch. In the company’s latest financial report, CEO Yves Guillemot—eager to spotlight some positive momentum—announced, “on the positive side, Assassin's Creed Shadows delivered on its expectations, with now more than 5 million unique players since its launch.”

This release comes after a string of challenging years and underwhelming launches for Ubisoft, and internal sentiment suggested leadership was counting on Shadows to be a breakout success after multiple delays and extensive development. But given the current climate of the gaming industry, even meeting expectations is a win.

That upbeat news, however, was tempered by a setback in player spending for Rainbow Six Siege—one of Ubisoft’s most enduring live-service titles—due to "temporary but significant disruptions caused by technical pricing issues," which is corporate speak for a currency exploit. Still, more is on the horizon for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The report continues:

"Assassin's Creed? Shadows performed in line with expectations and recently crossed the 5 million player mark. Ongoing additions continue to enhance the player experience, most notably the recent Parkour update, which introduced new interactions for both Naoe and Yasuke and was well received by players. Ahead of the Holiday season, the mid-term potential of the game will be supported by the Claws of Awaji expansion, coming in Q2, that will introduce more than 10 hours of new content along with a new weapon, skills and abilities, further expanding and enriching the game experience."

When asked during an investor call how Shadows stacks up against earlier Assassin’s Creed titles, Guillemot noted, "it has a very good start." He also highlighted that "we see that it reacts very well to price drops," hinting that aggressive sales and discounts may be on the way.

Meanwhile, the official Assassin’s Creed Twitter account revealed that those 5 million players have collectively achieved 2 billion stealth kills, traveled over 1 billion kilometers, and—when not slicing through enemies or trekking across feudal Japan—petted animals a staggering 38 million times.

Let’s be real—this is the kind of data that truly captures a game’s cultural footprint. Back in 2020, we learned the foxes in Ghost of Tsushima were petted nearly 10 million times, and now it seems every open-world game with furry creatures feels obligated to share these wholesome stats. Next up: Ghost of Yotei, don’t let us down.

Ubisoft CEO confirms Assassin's Creed Shadows budget exceeded $100 million—less surprising if you endured the game’s 2-hour-long credits

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