Assassin’s Creed Shadows Struggles in Japan: Poor Sales, Worse Than Valhalla and Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Shadows attracted over 3 million players in just one week, but most of these players are from Western countries. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima and other Japanese games set in Japan, the adventure of Yasuke and Naoe doesn’t seem to have fully convinced the Japanese audience, as the numbers reported by Famitsu show. After a disappointing first week, the situation has only gotten worse.
Sales Numbers Are Disappointing
In its first week in Japan, Assassin’s Creed Shadows sold 17,701 physical copies for PS5, which is 60% less than Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (45,055), and even lower than Odyssey (45,166) and Mirage (28,436), despite its Japanese setting. In the second week, from March 24 to March 30, Shadows sold just 5,565 more units, reaching a total of 23,266 copies. These are very poor numbers, especially with more than 6.5 million PS5 consoles in Japan. Sales on Xbox Series X/S didn’t even make it into the top 30, with fewer than 1,000 units sold.
Comparisons to Other Games
To put things into perspective, Ghost of Tsushima sold 212,000 copies at launch in Japan, while Nioh and Nioh 2 sold more than 75,000 and 92,000 copies, respectively. Even Rise of the Ronin, which received more criticism, debuted last year with 65,000 copies sold and stayed near the top of the charts for almost a month. In comparison, Shadows quickly dropped from 5th to 8th place, despite limited competition. Thankfully for Ubisoft, sales in North America and Europe seem to be much better.
