Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Tops 100,000 Concurrent Steam Players, a First for the Franchise

Overview

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has become the first game in Ubisoft’s long-running franchise to draw more than 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, reaching a peak of 104,756 players three days after its July 9 launch, according to GamesRadar+. The milestone caps a launch week in which the remake also sold 2 million copies on its first day, Ubisoft said.

What We Know

• Black Flag Resynced, a full remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, launched July 9 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, and is also available through the Ubisoft+ subscription, Ubisoft said.
• The game sold 2 million copies on its first day and ranked number one on Twitch on July 9, according to Ubisoft. Within the first 24 hours it reached a peak of 99,451 concurrent players on Steam, which Ubisoft said was already the highest concurrent count ever recorded for an Assassin’s Creed title on the platform.
• Three days after launch, the concurrent-player count climbed further, to a peak of 104,756, making Black Flag Resynced the first Assassin’s Creed game to cross 100,000 simultaneous Steam players, GamesRadar+ reported. That figure surpassed the previous high for the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which peaked at 64,825 concurrent players, by more than 39,000, according to the outlet. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey had peaked at 62,069 and Assassin’s Creed Origins at 41,551, while the original 2013 release of Black Flag topped out at 16,049 concurrent Steam players, GamesRadar+ reported.
• Critical reception has been positive. The game holds an 86 average on OpenCritic across 160 critic reviews, with 94% of critics recommending it. On Metacritic, it holds an 84 Metascore on both PC (47 reviews) and PlayStation 5 (89 reviews), and an 82 on Xbox Series X (12 reviews); the PS5 version also carries a user score of 8.7 from 631 ratings. TheSixthAxis rated the game 8 out of 10 in its review.
• The remake was rebuilt from the ground up on Ubisoft’s Anvil engine with ray-traced lighting, removes the modern-day framing sequences that bracketed the original 2013 release, and adds roughly six extra hours of missions and story, TheSixthAxis reported.
• “Black Flag has always held a special place in the heart of the community, and ours. Bringing it back with Resynced was a promise to that passion for Edward’s adventures, and to the unique sense of freedom players experienced back then. Seeing so many players set sail on day one, along with the great reviews from critics, is the greatest reward we could have hoped for,” said Martin Schelling, Head of the Assassin’s Creed Brand, in Ubisoft’s launch announcement.

What We Don’t Know

Neither Ubisoft nor GamesRadar+ has disclosed concurrent-player or sales figures broken out by platform, so it is not clear how much of the Steam surge reflects new buyers versus players of the 2013 original returning for the remake. Ubisoft has also not said how long the current concurrent-player peak is expected to hold or whether it plans to release further sales updates.

Context

Ubisoft first confirmed the remake in April, as previously reported by The Machine Herald, following a trailer leak that pre-empted the studio’s own reveal event. That announcement came against a backdrop of cost-cutting at Ubisoft, including studio closures and layoffs; three months later, the finished remake has become the publisher’s strongest Steam concurrency performance for the franchise to date, alongside generally favorable reviews from critics.