Assassin’s Creed is one of the few post-2000’s gaming franchises to have survived into the modern era, even amidst the rise of battle royales and MOBAs. Publisher Ubisoft has successfully guided the stealth gameplay through a myriad of variations to maintain the interest of the games’ player base.
With the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the 15th of November, Ubisoft has once again provided a slight twist on the formula to ignite fans’ excitement: Dual protagonists. The ninja Naoe and the samurai Yasuke offer different gameplay focuses, with the former tending towards the stealth-oriented gameplay of earlier Assassin’s Creed entries while the latter tackles enemies head-on in the fashion of recent action-heavy titles.
In the lead up to the game’s release, we’re taking a look back at the performance of Assassin’s Creed on live-streaming platforms, including a comparison of the various entries and their performance against other recent action-adventure titles.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Lit Up Live-Streaming Platforms Upon Release
The last entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, was a great success upon its debut. In just the first week of its release, Assassin’s Creed Mirage generated 5M hours watched across all platforms with a peak viewership of 114K. No doubt many long-time fans of the series were happy to see Assassin’s Creed Mirage return to the smaller scale of earlier titles, with a greater emphasis on puzzles and stealth rather than the action of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Additionally, the Baghdad setting felt fully realized, perhaps due to the similarity with the 9th-century setting of another of Ubisoft’s famous franchises: Prince of Persia.
New Releases in the Assassin’s Creed Franchise are Gaming Events
However, when taking a broader view of Assassin’s Creed viewership over the past eight years, it becomes clear which entry was the most popular on live streaming. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s release propelled franchise monthly viewership up to 30.1M hours watched. Even the announcement alone saw a monthly franchise viewership of 4.1M. The overwhelming popularity of this particular entry was most likely a confluence of two factors: Firstly, the Norse setting was still winning over gamers (as seen with God of War Ragnarök). Secondly, the open-world RPG premise of the game was very much in vogue at the time (and still now).
Ubisoft’s willingness to bend the genre of Assassin’s Creed has kept the series relevant among a shifting gaming landscape. With the next phase of Assassin’s Creed games, it appears the publisher wants to take that philosophy further by even going beyond RPG design. Recent titles have introduced multiplayer modes, dating sim mechanics, and even the mega-popular management-style gameplay of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Pre-release Hype for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Building Early
Taking risks has kept fans on their toes for each new release. The hype is already building for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with chat mentions of “Assassin’s Creed” reaching 199K on Twitch alone. There were two major boosts to this pre-release hype: Firstly, the release of the official Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer in May with 7.1K chat mentions, and secondly the full gameplay demo at the Xbox Showcase in June with 5.8K chat mentions.
As seen with the popularity of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Norse setting, the much-demanded feudal Japanese setting of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a massive drawcard for players. While many online commentators have compared the setting to Ghost of Tsushima, it’s worth noting that many games have featured the same setting in recent years such as Nioh, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Rise of the Ronin. Even the award-winning TV series Shōgun has been leveraging the popularity of this time period’s dramatic allure. The game will also feature romances again (a trend started back in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) and cover a similar scale to Assassin’s Creed Origins.
The hype for Assassin’s Creed extends beyond Shadows, however. Fans are hoping for more news about the much-discussed Assassin’s Creed Infinity: An upcoming platform for all Assassin’s Creed games that promises to link the titles together via the Animus Hub. Intriguingly, project lead Marc-Alexis Côté has promised that Assassin’s Creed Infinity will evolve over time to become so much more than a simple hosting platform for Assassin’s Creed titles. Many fans are hoping that the new game will provide a glimpse into what this platform looks like.
Assassin’s Creed Battles it Out with Other Action-Adventure Games on Live Streaming
Despite Assassin’s Creed’s pedigree among video games, the last entry only just edged into the top 10 action-adventure games on live-streaming platforms. Assassin’s Creed Mirage lost out to the massive scope of Starfield with 27.9M hours watched in its first week, and other sequels like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2 with 11.2M and 7.9M hours watched, respectively. This lower viewership isn’t entirely surprising, however: Assassin’s Creed Mirage was a return to a more focused gameplay experience in opposition to the previous Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that was better suited to live-streaming platforms with its open-world design.
Additionally, subgenres that are on trend also provide stiff competition to Assassin’s Creed. The Chinese-developed games Lies of P, a Souls-like, and Wuthering Waves, a Gacha game, both capitalized on the recent demand for specific types of gameplay that are already popular on live streaming. It’s likely that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will garner similar demand as it potentially has an online component yet to be fully explained – as hinted by the need to have an internet connection to load the game.
Ubisoft is all too familiar with how to find live-streaming success, as demonstrated by the roaring popularity of its shooter titles XDefiant and Rainbow Six Siege. As the Assassin’s Creed franchise moves into a new era with Assassin’s Creed Infinity and Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe, Ubisoft seems set to bring the franchise into the online, live service domain. No doubt, this will mean a maelstrom of live-streaming platform demand for the franchise – something Stream Hatchet will be watching closely.
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