Murderer’s Creed Shadows sneaks to high of March gross sales | Circana

Regardless of some controversy main as much as its launch, Murderer’s Creed Shadows managed to rise to the highest of March gross sales charts within the U.S., in accordance with industry-tracking agency Circana. It was considered one of a number of releases that month to make it onto the charts, with Shadows additionally turning into the second-best-selling recreation of the yr. Nonetheless, gross sales generally are nonetheless as a lot within the pink as they have been final month, with {hardware} gross sales being down by 25% simply as they have been in February.

“March online game {hardware} spending fell 25% when in comparison with a yr in the past, to $286 million. That is the bottom March {hardware} spending whole since 2019 ($279M),” mentioned Mat Piscatella, Circana’s government producer for video games experiences. “Digital solely SKUs have accounted for 75% of Xbox Collection and 50% of PlayStation 5 {hardware} items offered year-to-date.”

As with February 2025, the March 2025 {hardware} gross sales are following on March 2024’s decline of -32%. It price noting that {hardware} gross sales for the 2023 interval have been up by a big share (68% in February 2023, 10% in March 2023). The March 2024 {hardware} decline could possibly be corrective following the 2023 spike, however 2025’s continued decline appears to be extra indicative of how the present console technology is getting older.

Regardless of the breakthrough success of a number of of March’s titles, general gross sales proceed to drop. Piscatella famous, “The one segments displaying progress in comparison with a yr in the past have been non-mobile subscription (+11%) and digital premium downloads on console (+12%). Cellular content material spending within the month completed 6% behind March 2024 (cell supply: Sensor Tower).”

Circana March 2025: High 20 best-selling video games within the U.S.

A grand whole of seven new video games have made it onto the March checklist, the very best variety of 2025. These video games symbolize a comparatively big range of genres, from the action-adventure titles like Murderer’s Creed Shadows and Hazelight’s newest title, Cut up Fiction; to sports activities titles like WWE 2K25 and MLB: The Present 25. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a combating recreation title, whereas the remaster of the primary two Suikoden video games made it to the 18th place.

One recreation notably worthy of notice on this checklist is Xenoblade Chronicles X, the remaster of which was launched in March because the Definitive Version. The sport initially launched on the unpopular Wii U, so the remaster is reaching a a lot bigger viewers. Nintendo doesn’t report digital gross sales to Circana, so its inclusion on the gross sales charts is predicated solely off of bodily gross sales. Given this reality, it’s spectacular {that a} remaster of a ten-year-old action-RPG made it so excessive on the checklist, and will have positioned even larger if digital gross sales have been taken into consideration.

Murderer’s Creed Shadows: Will it’s sufficient for Ubisoft?

The most recent Murderer’s Creed recreation, Shadows, has been the topic of no small quantity of discourse previous to its launch. One of many largest speaking factors was about how the sport’s gross sales would have an effect on Ubisoft. The corporate admitted that its 2024 title Star Wars: Outlaws had “softer than anticipated” gross sales, and the corporate laid off 185 folks earlier this yr. It additionally reported that it was exploring “strategic choices” close to the corporate’s future.

All of which is to say that Ubisoft shall be protecting an in depth eye on Shadows’ gross sales. It lately spun out a brand new core division of its gaming enterprise that focuses on Murderer’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six manufacturers. Tencent invested $1.25 billion on this division final month. Shadows promoting notably properly couldn’t solely assist with Ubisoft’s monetary scenario, however might additionally exhibit the franchise’s long-term endurance. However it stays to be seen if the gross sales will truly meet Ubisoft’s expectations.

Circana March 2025: 20 best-selling video games of 2024 thus far

As acknowledged above, Murderer’s Creed Shadows soared to 2nd place on the year-to-date checklist. It’s not the one March title to make it to this checklist, particularly as 2025’s titles begin to displace final yr’s titles. Hazelight’s Cut up Fiction took tenth place, whereas sports activities titles MLB: The Present 25 and WWE 2K25 took 4th and sixth place, respectively. All of those video games have the attraction of earlier video games backing them up — franchise recognition within the case of WWE 2K, MLB: The Present and Murderer’s Creed, and critically acclaimed earlier video games from the studio within the case of Cut up Fiction.