Ubisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has sold more than 2 million copies just one day after launching on July 9. The publisher also says the game reached the top spot on Twitch on launch day and peaked at 99,451 concurrent players on Steam, making it the biggest Steam launch in the history of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Not bad for a game that was released in…2013? What? I feel old.
For comparison, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows had reached five million players around four months after launch, although that figure included subscription users. Alinea Analytics later estimated that Shadows had sold approximately 4.3 million copies after seven months. Black Flag Resynced reaching two million actual sales at launch therefore puts it almost halfway to Shadows’ estimated seven-month total already. If we account for subscription numbers, Black Flag Resynced is probably already getting close to Shadow’s numbers.
The strong launch comes alongside equally positive critical reception. Ubisoft says the remake currently sits at an 85 OpenCritic score and an 84 on Metacritic, making it one of the highest-rated Assassin’s Creed releases in years.
However, that success has been accompanied by criticism from some players over the game’s monetisation. At launch, Ubisoft also released around £80 worth of DLC packs, while some Steam users complained that in-game store promotions felt overly aggressive for a full-priced single-player game.
It doesn’t appear to have slowed the game’s momentum, though. With 2 million copies sold in a single day, Black Flag Resynced has delivered exactly the kind of blockbuster launch Ubisoft was hoping for, and arguably desperately needs right now.
Ubisoft did respond to the day-one DLC backlash, but it was a generic reply stating that the packs were just skins etc. while completely ignoring the actual gist of player’s issues.
I’m a couple of hours into the remake so far and I’m having a blast. Black Flag holds up well, and contains some of the best characters and writing of the entire series, as well as the awesome ship combat. The remake’s graphics are superb and some of the quality-of-life changes have been excellent. That said, a few of the changes haven’t been for the better.
Keep a weathered eye on the horizon for my review in the coming weeks. Now hoist the colours, boys, we’ve got prizes to capture.
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