Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Player Count Has Tripled Since Skull And Bones’ Launch

Following the release of Skull and Bones, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag has gained a hefty number of players on Steam. The peak concurrent player count of the Ubisoft title on Steam has risen to over 3,000 players from 900 after Skull and Bones hit the market a few weeks ago.

On February 15, a day before Skull and Bones came out, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag had a mere 971 concurrent player peak on Steam. However, this rose to almost double the next day when Ubisoft launched their new pirate adventure, increasing to 1,662 concurrent users across 24 hours.

The following day, this figure saw another sharp increase to a decent 2,600 players before crossing the 3,000 mark the very next day. As of right now, the highest peak player count of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag on Steam after Skull and Bones released is 3,594 players which is the most traffic the title has seen since 2020.

The 2024 adventure game only being available on Epic Games Store and through Ubisoft might play a small role in this revival, but the reviews and my personal experience sailing the seas for over 1,000 hours tell us that Black Flag is the superior pirate adventure bar none.

Skull and Bones has been met with a mixed to negative reception so far, with many calling it a charming title let down by its live-service elements. The action-adventure title has also not met the financial expectations of Ubisoft up until now and has not even accumulated a million players yet, getting stuck on 850,000 as of February 22. 

Skull and Bones came out on February 16, 2024, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. Our review of the Ubisoft game rated it 3/5, with author Moiz Banoori calling it a worse version of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, criticizing the title’s subpar voice acting and repetitive gameplay.