Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Steam Pre-Orders Have Already Beaten Skull & Bones' Lifetime Sales, Analyst Claims

Launch sales projections for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake look like a huge improvement on Assassin's Creed Shadows, the franchise's most recent release.

Steam pre-orders for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced are 5.39 times higher than those for Shadows, according to industry analyst Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics. Remarkably, this means Resynced has already beaten the lifetime sales of Skull & Bones, Ubisoft's costly, long-in-development pirate spinoff from Black Flag that eventually emerged in 2024.

Writing on Substack, Elliot stated that Resynced looked set to be a "much-needed hit for Ubisoft" following a mixed response to Shadows and a turbulent time at the publisher marked by regular layoffs and studio closures.

Launched in 2025 after a notable delay and months of pre-release controversy, Assassin's Creed Shadows ultimately failed to capitalize on pent up demand for its long-awaited feudal Japan setting. Ubisoft recently released a final update for the game, killing ongoing support after just 12 months and only one post-launch expansion — a fraction of the attention given to other recent blockbusters such as Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla.

Ubisoft has refrained from releasing up-to-date sales figures for Shadows, instead stating only that the game had passed 5 million players in mid-2025 — a number that will also include those who had played the game via access within a subscription service.

Elliot stated that Shadows has actually now sold 5.7 million copies, of which 23.8% were on PC (around 1.3 million). The bulk of Shadows' sales, 53.6%, were on PS5, while the remaining 23.6% were on Xbox. By comparison, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is known to have sold at least 10 million copies, while Valhalla has sold more than that (though again, Ubisoft refrained from divulging specific figures — simply that it has generated an enormous $1 billion in revenue.)

Resynced is a ground-up remake that focuses on Black Flag's main Caribbean-set story that stars Edward Kenway and a cast of popular pirate characters such as Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Ann Bonney. The original game's multiplayer and modern day sections are not included, though a sizable amount of new content has been woven into its core narrative instead.

"Black Flag Resynced is a timely strategy for a struggling Ubisoft," Elliot concluded. "After a turbulent few years of costly development, delays, and high-profile misses (ironically including Skull & Bones, which spun out of Black Flag’s own naval tech), Ubisoft is dealing with fractured pipelines. Building an unproven new IP from scratch is a six-to-eight-year gamble costing hundreds of millions.

"High-fidelity remakes of beloved legacy titles are the low-risk alternative – and one Ubi hasn’t really leveraged much yet. Such remakes reuse a universally praised design blueprint, lowering creative risk while guaranteeing a built-in audience."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launches this Thursday, July 9 and you can check IGN's release times guide to find out exactly when the game unlocks in your region.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social