Assassin’s Creed III tops 7 million copies sold

Since its debut a month ago, Assassin's Creed III has sold over 7 million copies, making it the best-selling title in Ubisoft history.

Assassin’s Creed III hit store shelves on October 30. As you can see from our review the game is quite good, and between its objective quality and the novel Revolutionary setting, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC title has attracted a huge number of veteran fans of the franchise as well as those new to the series. As a result it’s been selling like historically inaccurate hotcakes, and this morning Ubisoft issued a giddy announcement claiming that the game has sold over seven million copies to date.

“The reception for Assassin’s Creed III has been exceptional, and this success has positioned the game among the best sellers of the 2012 holiday season” said Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key. “We knew we had something special on our hands when Assassin’s Creed III was launched, and we’re really excited and proud to see how much fans are enjoying the latest installment in the franchise.”

Instead of merely announcing the sales figure and letting that huge number speak for itself, Ubisoft also offers up a list of impressive milestones reached by the game’s continually-swelling playerbase. According to the Gallic publisher, players have “accumulated more than 82 centuries of gaming time” in the title’s single-player campaign. Given the game’s titular focus on stealthy murder, these same players have combined to commit over three billion assassinations during this near-millennia of solo playing time. The game’s multiplayer modes are likewise packed with prospective killers: Ubisoft’s announcement states that Assassin’s Creed III has attracted over twice as many multiplayer fans as its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Over the past month these online gamers have tallied up “more than 250 million assassinations have been performed in more than 5 billion multiplayer sessions.”

The rest of Ubisoft’s missive serves to promote the game’s upcoming alternate history DLC pack, titled “The Tyranny of King Washington.” We initially reported on this add-on at the beginning of October, and as we mentioned at the time it focuses on what might have happened to the nascent American colonies following the Revolution if our first president, George Washington, opted to take on the role of America’s king, instead of its democratically-elected lead official. It’s a neat thought exercise that historians have been mulling over for centuries, yet as far as we know this is the first time it has been presented in video game form, offering players the chance to explore the world in full and, presumably, stab a number of important historical figures in their polygonal throats. 

Though still lacking a solid release date, The Tyranny of King Washington will be released as three separate downloadable single-player campaigns. Each will be minuscule in comparison to the single-player campaign that shipped with Assassin’s Creed III, but when taken as a whole they serve as a relatively lengthy side story that effectively continues the tale presented in the initial release of the game (though the direction it takes is far less historically accurate than the events of Assassin’s Creed III). If you’re interested in exploring the effects a despotic George Washington might’ve had on our newborn country you can purchase each of the three episodes piecemeal, though you will be able to save a bit of cash by picking up the Assassin’s Creed III Season Pass. At $30, it includes all of the DLC announced for the game to date, as well as new maps and characters for the game’s online multiplayer modes.