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., based on industry-tracking agency Circana. It was one in every of a number of releases that month to make it onto the charts, with Shadows additionally changing into the second-best-selling recreation of the yr. Nonetheless, gross sales typically are nonetheless as a lot within the pink as they had been final month, with {hardware} gross sales being down by 25% simply as they had 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 complete since 2019 ($279M),” stated Mat Piscatella, Circana’s govt producer for video games studies. “Digital solely SKUs have accounted for 75% of Xbox Sequence and 50% of PlayStation 5 {hardware} models 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 had been up by a big proportion (68% in February 2023, 10% in March 2023). The March 2024 {hardware} decline might be corrective following the 2023 spike, however 2025’s continued decline appears to be extra indicative of how the present console technology is ageing.

Regardless of the breakthrough success of a number of of March’s titles, total gross sales proceed to drop. Piscatella famous, “The one segments displaying progress in comparison with a yr in the past had 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: Prime 20 best-selling video games within the U.S.

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

One recreation significantly worthy of word on this listing 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 relies 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 listing, and will have positioned even greater if digital gross sales had been taken under 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 greatest 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 individuals earlier this yr. It additionally reported that it was exploring “strategic choices” as regards to the corporate’s future.

All of which is to say that Ubisoft might be protecting a detailed eye on Shadows’ gross sales. It just 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 significantly properly couldn’t solely assist with Ubisoft’s monetary state of affairs, however might additionally show the franchise’s long-term endurance. Nevertheless it stays to be seen if the gross sales will really meet Ubisoft’s expectations.

Circana March 2025: 20 best-selling video games of 2024 to this point

As said above, Murderer’s Creed Shadows soared to 2nd place on the year-to-date listing. It’s not the one March title to make it to this listing, particularly as 2025’s titles begin to displace final yr’s titles. Hazelight’s Break 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 Break up Fiction.