It looks like taking that year off was good for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Ubisoft revealed as part of its yearly financials today that Origins’ first 10 days of sales were 100 percent better than the last Assassin’s Creed’s, Syndicate, during the same time period.
Assassin’s Creed: Origins came out on October 27, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It features an ancient Egyptian setting that takes place earlier than any other entry in the series. Origins also has a revamped combat system that focuses less on counters.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate came out in 2015. At that point, it was the seventh year in a row that Ubisoft released a new game from that series (two, Black Flag and Rogue, came out in 2013). Franchise fatigue had set in and began impacting sales of the series. Ubisoft decided to give Assassin’s Creed a break in 2016, hoping that an extra year off could revive interest. It looks like that strategy is paying off.
Ubisoft also revealed that digital sales made up 35 percent of all purchased copies of Origins. This is up from 15 percent for Syndicate, showing how digital is becoming more important for big publishers.
