Given
the
dire
situation,

Ubisoft
has
found
itself
in,
including
plummeting
stock
prices,
it’s
hard
not
to
imagine
that
there’s
a
lot
riding
on
the
success
or
failure
of
Assassin’s
Creed:
Shadows,
the
newest
entry
in
the
long-running
franchise.

Well,
it
seems
like
its
good
news
for
Ubisoft,
at
least
thus
far.
Despite
the
game
being
somewhat
controversial,
it
has
apparently
drawn
in
over
a
million
players
in
its
first
24
hours
on
sale.
Note
that’s
“players”
rather
than
copies
sold
because

Assassin’s
Creed:
Shadows
is,
of
course,
included
on
Ubisoft’s
premium
subscription
service
which
rather
muddies
the
stats
a
tad.

We
don’t
have
much
data
about
total
players
for
past
entries
in
the
first
24
hours.
We
do
know
that
Assassin’s
Creed:
Valhalla
was
revealed
to
have
hit
1.8
million
players
in
its
first
week.
It
was
also
announced
to
have
sold
more
copies
than
any
other
entry
in
the
franchise
in
that
first
week.

On
Steam,
Shadows
appears
to
be
doing
decently,
though
hardly
amazing.
As
I’m
writing
this
the
game
has
hit
its
highest
concurrent
player
count
(41,582)
yet
and
looks
like
it
will
continue
to
rise.
This
does
not
account
for
all
PC
players
since
Shadows
is
also
available
via
Ubisoft’s
own
PC
storefront,
as
well
as
on
the
Epic
Games
Store.

Unfortunately,
it’s
hard
to
compare
those
Steam
numbers
to
prior

Assassin’s
Creed
games.
The
last
Assassin’s
Creed
game
to
release
day
1
on
Steam
was

Assassin’s
Creed:
Mirage,
managing
just

7,870
concurrent
players.
However,
Mirage
was
also
a
smaller
project
rather
than
a
true
mainline
release.

Assassin’s
Creed:
Valhalla
did
not
launch
on
Steam
on
day
1
as
Ubisoft
was
skipping
Steam
at
that
point.
It
would
come
to
Steam
several
years
later,
thus
only
getting

15,679
concurrent
players.
Assassin’s
Creed:
Odyssey,
however,
did
launch
on
Steam
alongside
console
and
drew

62,069
concurrent
players.

Player
and
critical
reception
seem
to
be
good
as
well.

Opencritic
currently
has
it
listed
with
an
aggregated
review
score
of
81
so
far.

On
Steam,
it’s
holding
a
“Very
Positive”
rating
with
over
4,200
reviews.

Whether
this
level
of
success
will
be
enough
to
help
Ubisoft
dig
itself
back
out
of
its
current
problems
remains
to
be
seen,
but
at
least
people
seem
to
be
having
fun
with
Assassin’s
Creed:
Shadows.
I’m
very
tempted
to
pick
it
up,
I
have
to
admit.