Assassin’s Creed’s Long Road To Japan Has Paid Off Big Time
Is Ubisoft out of the shadows?
After several recent flops, Ubisoft needed its next big Assassin’s Creed title to be a runaway success. It bet all its chips on the open-world RPG, even delaying it twice to ensure it was as polished and refined as possible. It seems those efforts have paid off, as Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now the second-best-selling game of 2025.
This update comes courtesy of Circana’s Executive Director & Video Game Industry Analyst, Mat Piscatella, who posted to BlueSky that Shadows has enjoyed considerable success since its March 20 release.
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been the best-selling video game in the US for each of its first 3 weeks in market, according to Circana's Retail Tracking Service,” he posted, adding that the statistic is based on dollar sales. “Currently ranks #2 year-to-date trailing only Monster Hunter: Wilds.”
Ubisoft hasn’t released sales numbers, instead opting to share the game’s engagement statistics. Piscatella’s insight provides a clearer picture of Shadows’ success, proving that players weren’t accessing the game through cheaper monthly subscription services like Ubisoft+, but have been buying it at retail and digital storefronts.
According to Piscatella, Shadows replaced Warhorse Studios’ Kingdom Come: Deliverance II in the number two slot. In mid-February, the Czech-based developer announced that their title had sold two million copies in just under two weeks. That means Shadows sold more than two million, but less than the eight million copies Monster Hunter Wilds sold in just three days.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows found big success splitting the series’ two different identities across two distinct protagonists.
For over a decade, Assassin’s Creed fans had been clamouring for an entry set in Feudal Japan. When Ghost of Tsushima arrived in 2020, it felt like developer Sucker Punch Productions had beaten Ubisoft to it. But Shadows’ unique approach, which took the best elements of its past entries and split them between two very different protagonists, was enough to draw interest to Ubisoft’s take on the era, with Shadows being praised by critics and players alike.
What this means for Ubisoft as a whole, however, isn’t clear yet. The company has already splintered off the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry with the help of a $1.25 billion investment from Chinese publisher Tencent, but it remains to be seen how Shadows’ success will impact the company following the shuttering of XDefiant, the underwhelming sales of Star Wars Outlaws, and a spattering of game cancellations.
For now, developer Ubisoft Quebec is focused on polishing Shadows. Last week, it released a big update that added some crucial quality of life features, like the ability to sell multiple items at once, and the option to have your horse auto-follow waypoints. Shadows will also get its first expansion, Claws of Awaji, later this year, which should add at least 10 hours of gameplay to an already massive experience.
