Although Assassin's Creed: Shadows has 5 million players, Ubisoft started the year in the red. Company knows what's to blame for that

Ubisoft has published a financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2025-2026, covering the period from April 1, 2025, to June 30, 2025. The total revenue of the French company was close to 310.8 million euros, which was 3.9% lower than the one generated in 2024-2025. Let's not forget that Assassin’s Creed: Shadows was released on March 20th, which was supposed to be a game-changer for the company.

Ubisoft is in the red and points out the culprits

Ubisoft openly admits that their results are below expectations, blaming it on unfavorable currency exchange rates and the confusion around Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege X, which made players less willing to spend money than usual, not on AC: Shadows. These factors were the reason why the revenue from game sales, DLCs, subscriptions, virtual items, etc., amounted to 281.7 million euros, which was 2.9% lower year on year. It's also worth noting that as much as 92.5% of this amount (260.4 million euros) was generated by productions from the "backward compatibility," meaning those released in previous years. The company, however, hopes that cooperation with Tencent will stabilize the situation.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows meets Ubisoft's expectations?

Ubisoft also boasted about the number of players of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Since March 20, 2025, 5 million people have played the latest title of the French company, which is in line with the corporation's expectations.

1. Nevertheless, these aren't sales figures because AC: Shadows is available as part of the Ubisoft+ subscription, and we don't know how many people decided to check out the title this way.
2. Is 5 million players in four months after the release a lot? It might seem that way, but considering the size and popularity of the franchise, this result is actually pretty decent or average.
3. For comparison, another RPG released this year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, sold 3.3 million copies in 33 days. This game launched over a month after AC: Shadows, on the same platforms (PC, PS5, XSX/S) and also made it to Game Pass on day one. So, there may already be more players of Clair Obscur than the new "Assassin." This can be influenced by both the quality and the relatively low price of Expedition 33.

Release date for AC: Shadows DLC confirmed

Ubisoft expects that the results of Assassin's Creed: Shadows will go up in the second half of 2025. This is anticipated to be affected by, among other factors, the release of the Claws of Awaji expansion, planned for the second quarter of the current fiscal year, which is from July to September. The earlier rumors said the DLC would launch in September, so we can probably expect it in that month.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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