Assassin's Creed Valhalla looks like it's off to a strong start
Pleased to mead you.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is off to a good start, it seems, judging by the enthusiastic Ubisoft press release which dropped into my email inbox.
We're still a little too early to hear about sales figures - Valhalla only turned up on PlayStation 5 today in countries where PS5 is actually available - but Ubisoft already has an impressive stat to share nonetheless.
Twice as many people played Valhalla at launch on Monday, 10th November, as played Ancient Greece-set Odyssey on its debut back in October 2018.
That's quite a leap - and one which speaks to the long-term success of Odyssey, which continued to rack up sales and positive word of mouth over time. (Also, parts of the world are in lockdown, and there are generally more consoles out there than a couple of years ago.)
"We are humbled by the reception from the players and extremely proud of what our teams have accomplished with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which builds on the amazing success of its predecessors," Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said.
"In the context of COVID-19, shipping Assassin's Creed Valhalla on no less than seven platforms is an incredible achievement for all of the teams involved around the world. We are excited to greet players on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 with a game that unleashes the power of the new hardware. This paves the way for an exciting Christmas period, with Assassin's Creed Valhalla set to be one of this season's biggest hits."
Another reason Valhalla is probably selling? It's good! In Eurogamer's Assassin's Creed Valhalla review, I wrote that it was "another enormous Assassin's Creed saga, lavishly designed, with its sights set on story direction over narrative choice".