Game of the Year nominated Assassin's Creed title is blowing up on Steam ahead of AC Shadows' release

The upcoming release of Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to have re-ignited the interest of PC players (on Steam) in an earlier title in the series — Assassin's Creed Odyssey from 2018. The Steam player count for the game rocketed to a peak of 30,301 concurrent players in the past 24 hours, and the highest individual peak was 17,891 players on November 29th, 2024. Interestingly, Odyssey was nominated for the Game of The Year award in 2018, but faced tough competition from the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War (of which the latter emerged victorious).

Set in feudal Japan, the upcoming Assasin's Creed Shadows will allow players to control the characters Yasuke and Naoe as they traverse through the map. The game was originally slated to release on November 12, 2024, but was delayed in an official announcement by Ubisoft, and is now set to officially launch on February 14, 2025.

Below are some details about this recent spike in Assasin's Creed Odyssey's popularity.

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Why Odyssey's recent popularity proves Assassin's Creed Shadows' Steam launch on day 1 was the right call

Odyssey's developers are the same ones in charge of developing Shadows (Image via Ubisoft/Steam)

Ubisoft made the decision to move away from launching Assassin's Creed games on Steam after the release of Odyssey, instead opting to first release them on their own platform Ubisoft Connect, and later bringing them to Steam. The sales figures for Valhalla and Mirage were affected by this decision, and as a result, both games failed to get the traction that Odyssey received during its launch.

Odyssey was originally released in October 2018 and had its highest peak on Steam during its launch period, when it hit a peak of 62,069 players. Since then, the player count has gradually decreased, as happens with the natural progression of time and the game getting older. However, the recent surge in its popularity saw the peak player count reach nearly half of the all-time peak mentioned above.

There are a few possible reasons for this sudden influx of players, chief among which may be the fact that all the Assassin's Creed games were made available at a low price during the recent Steam Autumn Sale.

The recent jump in Steam's player count for Odyssey (Image via Ubisoft, Steam, SteamDB)

Furthermore, Odyssey was the last game developed by Ubisoft Quebec, which is also in charge of developing Shadows. This, paired with the low price barrier to entry, has led players to flock toward the game.

That said, Odyssey in itself is quite appreciated within the AC community. The reasons for this may vary from player to player, which may include the characters, the vast open world of ancient Greece, an intriguing story, gameplay elements, and much more.

The title is set in the era of the first half of the Peloponnesian War, which took place between Athens and Sparta and spanned from 431 BC until 422 BC. All things considered, it seems like Alexios and Kassandra's journey across Greece is worth revisiting even in 2024.

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