After months of build-up, multiple delays, and controversy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally launched worldwide this month. Despite the negative press surrounding the title, the RPG has been performing decently so far, amassing over 3 million players already and the second-best launch in the franchise’s history.

However, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is having a harder time impacting Japan, with many fans not warming up to the title despite positive reviews from critics. And, as it turns out, the game’s first-week sales in Japan are among the worst in Assassin’s Creed franchise history.

Why it matters: The RPG’s failure to pander to Japanese audiences even after being set in their country is troubling for Western titles. The title has performed poorly in Japan, critically and commercially.
As per Famitsu’s charts, only the PlayStation 5 edition of Assassin’s Creed Shadows made it into this week’s top 10, selling a mediocre 17.1K copies and sitting at 5th place in its debut week. These launch numbers make it the franchise’s worst start in the series in almost a decade.

Previous entries like Valhalla and Odyssey sold over double the amount in their first week, with even AC Mirage releasing with better numbers in Japan than Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

To make matters even worse, the RPG’s debut week accumulated much lower sales than other AAA Samurai titles set in Japan, such as Ghost of Tsushima, Nioh, and Rise of the Ronin. All these opened to over 50K sales, with Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima selling a whopping 212K units, twelve times more than Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The RPG could reach 6 million players in a month.
Overall, the RPG performed poorly in its first week, overshadowed by older Assassin’s Creed titles and other Samurai-based AAA games set in Japan. Outside the country, however, the game is doing surprisingly well, with projections putting it at 6 million players in under a month in addition to positive Steam reviews.