Assassin’s Creed Shadows had a massive debut last month
According to new figures from Circana, it was the second best-selling game of March 2025—coming in just behind Monster Hunter: Wilds, and slightly ahead of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.
It also topped the Xbox charts, and landed as the second most popular game on both PlayStation and Steam. Not a bad result for Ubisoft, especially after a pretty turbulent run in recent years.
Circana’s Mat Piscatella called it a “great start,” and for good reason. Shadows is already one of the best-performing Assassin’s Creed games at launch, sitting just behind AC3 and Valhalla. Ubisoft really needed a win like this—especially after recent layoffs, cancelled titles, and studio closures.
It’s worth noting the timing too. The game’s release lined up with some big moves behind the scenes, like Tencent’s $1.25 billion investment in a new Ubisoft spin-off studio, focused on franchises like AC, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. The momentum from Shadows hitting 3 million players probably helped keep that news feeling like a win.
Within its first weekend, Shadows outperformed both Origins and Odyssey, though it didn’t quite top Valhalla, which launched during peak lockdown gaming. Still, it managed the second highest day-one revenue in franchise history and broke Ubisoft’s record for biggest day-one sales on the PlayStation Store. So far, players have racked up over 40 million hours in-game.
March’s Other Highlights
March was stacked with new releases—seven of the top 20 games for the month were new entries. MLB: The Show 25 came in strong, topping PlayStation’s charts and outperforming last year’s release by 23%.
One surprise hit was Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which landed in Steam’s top 10 games by monthly active users, thanks to a solid Switch release and word-of-mouth buzz.
Helldivers II also kept its momentum going, taking the top spot on Steam’s MAU charts—likely helped along by social media and some serious fan dedication.
Even with all the new releases, overall game spending in March dipped slightly. Total spending hit $4.2 billion, down 3% compared to last year. Most of that drop came from mobile gaming, which saw a 6% decline.
Console hardware sales weren’t much better—down 25% year-on-year. It was the lowest March total since 2019. The PS5 was still the best-selling console for the month, followed by Xbox and Switch. That said, Switch sales were down 37%, probably because a lot of people are holding out for the rumoured Switch 2.
So while the industry had a bit of a slow month overall, Assassin’s Creed Shadows gave Ubisoft something to smile about—and set a solid tone for what’s shaping up to be a packed year in gaming.
Stay tuned to Clocked for a solid dose of gaming news.
