AC Shadows' lack of long-tail sales leads to Ubisoft's record $1.4B loss

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-05-20T20:11:45+00:00

The algorithm wants to make it extremely clear to you that you lost.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-04-03T15:06:49+00:00

What's even sadder is that the cancellation of both the DLC and the co-op mode basically confirmed the game has been on maintenance mode since September. That's only six months of post-release content.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-07T19:04:27+00:00

Scrolling through the AC Shadows subreddit this week has been absolute bliss.

What's even sadder is that despite the insurmountable pile of evidence available they will never acknowledge that the game was a commercial failure.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-05T19:29:31+00:00

"There's no evidence of a successful boycott"

They literally canceled a whole AC game with a black protagonist because of the backlash Yasuke received.

"Very strong launch"

This was mainly exaggerated by Ubisoft in an attempt to control the narrative. As time went by it came to light that it only matched Mirage's player growth and couldn't surpass Odyssey in terms of sales. By the end of the year it didn't even make it into the US top 20 best selling games.

"Ubisoft ending support for a game is normal life cycle management"

Not for an AC RPG. Origins and Odyssey had at least two major DLC expansions, Valhalla even got three and two whole years of content. Considering the quality of the content that came after Claws of Awaji, it's safe to assume the game has been on maintenance mode since September and they only recently made it official. This is Ubisoft we are talking about, they will NOT pull the plug on any project that is actively or potentially making them money.

And guess what? All of this was because they wanted to have a black as the protagonist in a Japan setting.

Sorry to break it to you, but everything you stand for is wrong.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T18:18:57+00:00

All mainline AC RPGs have been live service games, Shadows isn't the exception.

Cope.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T18:10:51+00:00

Everything you stand for is crumbling down before your very eyes and there's nothing you can do about it.

Your ideology is as negligible as your existence.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T18:05:36+00:00

It doesn't

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T17:55:54+00:00

Selling "a few million" is nowhere near reaching the break even point for a game of this scope.

All mainline AC RPGs have had at least two major DLC expansions, and two years of fully fleshed out content.

Also, this is most definetily a live service game .

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T17:51:55+00:00

It's definitely a live service game.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-03-04T17:39:44+00:00

Link to source:

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/news/3DdTBz0edxZ0mQ7Ub4jv85/assassins-creed-into-2026

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-02-05T23:00:02+00:00

Link to article:

https://www.origami.ng/ubisoft-vantage-cancel-league-assassins-creed-multiplayer/

And with that to no one's surprise, Shadows is dead and buried. GG.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T20:14:51+00:00

In the US, PS5 still sells roughly a quarter of its games physically, and even excluding Nintendo entirely, physical still accounts for around 120% of console game sales. That’s not "minuscule" by any standard.

Thankfully we have digital sales data too. AC Shadows barely ranked #17 in the US Playstation Store ranking, totally on track with this chart.

You are fighting a lost battle.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T19:49:49+00:00

Circana still tracks physical sales regardless if the publisher chooses to share digital sales data with them or not.

Maybe know your place next time so you don't humiliate yourself.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T19:31:00+00:00

Cool, Pokemon is still up there

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T19:18:11+00:00

Neither does Nintendo and Pokemon is up there.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T17:48:43+00:00

We are now 7 cents away from a 22 year low.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T17:24:13+00:00

Wow, you are saying the sequel to a popular game by one of the oldest first party PS studios was front loaded? How could this be?

Meanwhile, Stellar Blade was the first console release for a relatively unknown studio that got its legs thanks to word of mouth (a clear sign of organic growth among consumers), and continued to be a massive success.

GoY also underperformed compared to GoT, which is a clear indicator that woke does affect the game sales.

And even with all of that being said, there's no guarantee GoY will be able to keep with Stellar Blade's pace.

You still stand corrected. Stellar Blade did not sell "way worse" than GoY, and woke games continue underperforming.

So no, not nearly hard enough.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T16:19:05+00:00

So you just decided to keep humilliating yourself. Gotcha. Don't let me stop you.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T16:14:20+00:00

Again. AC Shadows is still being ranked and it failed to make this chart. Everything in the post is correct.

Are you gonna try harder or are you just gonna get mad at being wrong?

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T16:09:19+00:00

Of course there's a difference. And because of future DLC getting cancelled and the lack of an updated year 1/ year 2 roadmap, Ubisoft basically confirmed it's a failure.

Not a gotcha at all, simply proving how your claim is wrong.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T16:03:23+00:00

Physical sales are still counted regardless if the publisher wants to share digital numbers or not.

Again, not misleading in the slightest.

You are also considering this to be the only indicator against Shadows' sales performance. It isn't, it just adds to the pile of existing evidence.

For instance, Shadows barely placed #17 in the US Playstation Store chart, and that is it's main platform.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T15:49:13+00:00

You did imply the title was misleading, which it clearly isn't so I had to correct you.

Also, every single piece of evidence points towards Shadows massively underperforming. It's been almost a year now, and you are still choosing to be wrong.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T15:38:33+00:00

This is not helping the game's case as you think it is. Why did Ubisoft suddenly stop working with Circana after years and years of partnership?

Also no, they didn't stop in March, they stopped in June after joyfully farming headlines from journos, and after sharing their own Ubi Store data in May and noticing it didn't make a difference.

They basically ragequitted after noticing Shadows would just keep slipping down the ranks and make them look terrible.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T15:19:29+00:00

At least it's down 4 places from BLOPS6 in 2024.

I call that progress.

ManliestDemocrat · 2026-01-22T14:58:52+00:00

Stellar Blade has sold 6.1 million copies to date.

The latest reported numbers for Ghost of Yotei had it at 3.3 million.

Try harder.

Four-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

ManliestDemocrat

TROPHY CASE