Launch gross sales projections for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake appear like an enormous enchancment on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the franchise’s most up-to-date launch.
Steam pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced are 5.39 occasions larger than these for Shadows, in line with trade analyst Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics. Remarkably, this implies Resynced has already crushed the lifetime gross sales of Skull & Bones, Ubisoft’s pricey, long-in-development pirate spinoff from Black Flag that finally emerged in 2024.
Writing on Substack, Elliot acknowledged that Resynced seemed set to be a “much-needed hit for Ubisoft” following a blended response to Shadows and a turbulent time on the writer marked by common layoffs and studio closures.
Launched in 2025 after a notable delay and months of pre-release controversy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally didn’t capitalize on pent up demand for its long-awaited feudal Japan setting. Ubisoft lately launched a ultimate replace for the sport, killing ongoing help after simply 12 months and just one post-launch enlargement — a fraction of the eye given to different latest blockbusters similar to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla.
Ubisoft has kept away from releasing up-to-date gross sales figures for Shadows, as an alternative stating solely that the sport had handed 5 million gamers in mid-2025 — a quantity that may even embrace those that had performed the sport through entry inside a subscription service.
Elliot acknowledged that Shadows has really now bought 5.7 million copies, of which 23.8% have been on PC (round 1.3 million). The majority of Shadows’ gross sales, 53.6%, have been on PS5, whereas the remaining 23.6% have been on Xbox. By comparability, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is thought to have bought at the very least 10 million copies, whereas Valhalla has bought greater than that (although once more, Ubisoft kept away from divulging particular figures — merely that it has generated an infinite $1 billion in income.)
Resynced is a ground-up remake that focuses on Black Flag’s predominant Caribbean-set story that stars Edward Kenway and a solid of widespread pirate characters similar to Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Ann Bonney. The unique recreation’s multiplayer and modern-day sections should not included, although a large quantity of recent content material has been woven into its core narrative as an alternative.
“Black Flag Resynced is a well timed technique for a struggling Ubisoft,” Elliot concluded. “After a turbulent few years of pricey growth, delays, and high-profile misses (satirically together with Skull & Bones, which spun out of Black Flag’s personal naval tech), Ubisoft is coping with fractured pipelines. Constructing an unproven new IP from scratch is a six-to-eight-year gamble costing lots of of tens of millions.
“Excessive-fidelity remakes of beloved legacy titles are the low-risk different – and one Ubi hasn’t actually leveraged a lot but. Such remakes reuse a universally praised design blueprint, reducing artistic threat whereas guaranteeing a built-in viewers.”
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launches this Thursday, July 9 and you’ll test IGN’s launch occasions information to seek out out precisely when the sport unlocks in your area.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social