French publishing giant Ubisoft has reported a huge increase in Assassin's Creed players.
In a release on its investor page, the firm said that the recently-released Assassin's Creed Valhalla saw twice the number of active players than its predecessor, 2018's Odyssey, on launch.
"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 (pictured) 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 holiday, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla set to be one of this season’s biggest hits.”
Valhalla was released on November 10th for Microsoft's new Xbox Series X and S consoles, as well as Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC and Stadia. The title came to PlayStation 5 on its November 12th release in some parts of the world, and will be launching on Sony's machine when the second half of the launch takes place on November 19th.
Ubisoft fired the creative director of Assassin's Creed, Ashraf Ismail, in August of this year. This followed the developer stepping away from the project after it was revealed he had been engaged in an affair with a fan and had hidden the fact he was married from her.