Assassin's Creed Shadows Is Europe's Best-Selling New Game of 2025

"It's the best selling game... except it's not"

Runners up being GTAV and RDR2. It must have been a slow year.

Also, if digital sales aren't included, how accurate could this be?

i’m extremely happy that ac shadows is doing as well as it does
i’m hoping it keeps doing well

Grand theft auto 5 still selling new copies my god it's a money machine imagine the records the new game will break!!
Well done to Ubisoft though it was make or break with this game and they seem to have done good with it!!
I've never played it and probably never will I don't like they're games nowadays but respect where it's due 👏

Yeah a shame Kepler isn't sharing data for Clairrr. What a game, beat it yesterday after taking my sweetest time. It's really not just some FF or Persona, it's just SO different.

@JayJ Digital sales has asterix. Nintendo games has asterix. Can you connect the dots?

@TheArt Yeah it's really really good they could do so much with the ip I think even different genres I'd love a soulslike game on an earlier expedition or something it has the enemies the weapons the world, bosses, bonfire type respawns!
Either way I can't wait to see what comes next!

I enjoyed it a lot (not as much as E33). Hoping next month’s DLC provides story continuation/closure because act 3 was pathetically weak/nonexistent. But the 85 hours I played prior to act 3 were great.

@REALAIS Basing "most popular games" off physical sales is like basing "most popular movies" off blu-ray sales. The greater vast majority of game sales now a days are digital, and Mario Kart World is a game that is especially likely to have seen significantly more digital sales than physical as it can be a digital code included with Switch 2 consoles.

This article feels like it's a vain attempt to put the new AC game on a pedestal more than anything.

@JayJ I believe it's only Nintendo that doesn't report digital sales.
Which begs the question whether they count the digital code packed into Switch 2 bundles as physical or digital sales

There's no accounting for taste.

@JayJ Its most likely done really well digitally, maybe not best selling but combined with physical sales its most likely one of the best selling games this year.

@Apollo2212 Have you played it?

@JayJ it’s physical + Digital, only the Nintendo games lack Digital sales numbers, and Expedition 33 also.

It’s also the third best selling game of the year in the USA, physical + digital.

@JayJ you still are so defensive about your opinion when it only applies for Nintendo games, in this case only 2 games on list. Every list is not accurate because Sony and publishers are hiding it sales numbers in general unless they
have overachieved.

But Sony is probiding in its Blog Digital monthly sales rankings. Yes, without specific unit amount. But trends are clearly visible.

List so inaccurate it hurts.

Id be more interested of % of players that actually finishied this boring slog.

I understand the article tho, nothing generates more click than praising AC shadows.

@DennisReynolds The first few hours. Super boring. I fell off. Wasn't for me. I'll wait for the BF remake.

Fantastic game,this is great news!

Soon I will add to the Shadows numbers. Very eager to play it!

Even with the caveats noted that is a very impressive sales performance, particularly given that some labelled it a disaster (and some still try to).

More impressive though is Hogwarts Legacy at number 5 still - still 1 of my absolute favourites this entire generation (lets just hope they dont ruin its 'legacy' in the inevitable sequel).

Wheres Forza Horizon, thought it sold so well but its not even in the top 20 in Europe?

@Rich33 They have already said it's going to be a live service game, so take that news however you want to.

@Oram77
Have they - I thought that had been refuted, and it was staying as a SP game.
If it is LS they will have killed it completely.

That's a pretty sad Top 20 all in all. There's only been a handful of good games this year so far and most of them have been indie

@Rich33 I could be getting it confused with something else, but I remember them saying "they're not done with LS games" maybe Hogwarts could be saved from that...

Ubisoft keeps selling the same game every time and people still buy it.

AC Shadows greatest achievement is not being as bad as AC Valhalla.

@Rich33 hogwarts is more impressive when you consider that it's been on ps+ extra for majority of this year.

@JayJ Digital sales for PlayStation and Xbox are included. And like the title said, this is the best-selling NEW game of 2025. FC 25 came out in September 2024.

@Nalim Well, this list clears well over 3.5 million units. E33 sold 3.3 million in just over a month and has not made the top 20.

@Oram77
Your definitely right with WB games in general not being done with LS (even despite failures), and with them anything is sadly possible...
They could literally kill off the sequel of one of, if not the biggest selling original games in the last few years. NB by original, im referring to it not being a sequel or remake.
I will keep fingers crossed...

@Bluemoon2008
I suspect its had a boost from Switch2 which maybe counters sales lost on the Extra service, but whichever way you look at it, its continued selling is just impressive, to the point of being almost baffling (and I say this as someone who thought it was an amazing game).

@Apollo2212 Fair enough.

@Ricky-Spanish Missing those weird enemies already, plus the fantastic music and so much swag during battle.

@darylb24 According to the article E33 isnt in the list because Kepler Interactive doesnt share data with GSD, so who knows if it wouldve made the list or not.

Still, i heard Forza Horizon was selling a lot from MS, and since Oblivion and CoD are in the list ( im aware those sell a lot more copies than Horizon probably, but referring to MS apparently sharing the data ) i expected Horizon to be in the top 20 aswell.

The AC haters are hilarious, always moving the goal post. Now that there's news that it sold well, "but how many people finished it??????".

FFS. If you don't like the game, stop caring so much about it.

@JayJ Also all of these numbers they used are self reported and have regulators that do no regulating or policing of this data. Its on the honor system and the word honorable has a restraining order on Ubisoft.

Good for shadows, still waiting for a 50% off sale to buy it for myself but I look forward to playing it.

Well deserved it enjoyed it

That's interesting, given that the game came and went in a week, it literally has zero presence online, aside from the obvious schilling articles.

Nah, if it had done well, Ubi would have shared numbers of copies sold instead of numbers of players. As an internet expert on all things, I won’t be fooled /s

@Lup they’re blinded by hate. Same with the latest Superman movie.

@Lup what do you expect?
A: i dont like this game
B: but it sold well
A: i now love this game!

If nobody cared to crap on bad games there would only be assasins creeds and no expeditions 33. And then nome of us would have any fun! So… youre welcome!

Excellent news, I’ve completed the main campaign a while ago-but the world keeps dragging me back in. Throughly enjoyed both protagonists and I’m really looking forward to the claws of awaji expansion.

Still not copies sold though..lol

There is clearly a subset of gamers who can't accept that AC Shadows has done well and they've been doing non-stop mental gymnastics ever since its launch to discredit every bit of news about its success. Get over yourselves. What people should be complaining about instead, is the fact that each incremental, full-priced edition of Lootbox FC keeps topping these lists.

@DennisReynolds I dont do likely just make all the numbers available.

@Lup I loved Syndicate but besides that im not the highest dan of the AC IP the stories get so convoludet. The main thing from the machine for the past made the game worse for me.