Video games often get a surge in players and sales when a new adaptation comes around. But in a surprising twist to that trend, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has found itself with a huge rise in players thanks to The Odyssey.
Per <a href="https://alineaanalytics.substack.com/p/playstation-physical-shares-fc-27″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Alinea Analytics, the 2018 action-RPG has seen a 90% boost across Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. Starting with the film’s July 17 release and over a 10-day period, a shared 122,000 players grew to 233,000. Breaking this down by system, Alinea reports Xbox had a 134% growth from 36,000 to 84,000 daily players (2.5x its daily amount), followed by PlayStation at 94%, and Steam at 26%. It’s worth noting Odyssey is on multiple subscription services, including Xbox Game Pass and Ubisoft+, hence its sizable console growth.
Not long after The Odyssey hit theaters and proved a box office hit, Ubisoft leaned into that on social media. A few posts linking the game and film, even going so far as to put the film’s logo over a screenshot of the game, clearly went a long way. It doesn’t hurt that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey already had a few nods to the Greek epic the movie’s based on, from artwork and mentions of Odysseus and his family to in-game items named after them. Unlike the film, Ubisoft draws from all corners of Greek mythology while incorporating it into Assassin’s Creed‘s normal sci-fi framework.
This makes for an impressive flex for both Nolan and Ubisoft, given how unconnected the film and game otherwise are. For anyone still high off the movie, you could do worse than Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. With how long it is, it could easily tide you over until The Odyssey hits streaming and gets a physical release this year—maybe longer, depending on how deep you dive into that massive game.
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