Ubisoft Says Skull and Bones Has ‘Record Player Engagement’, but Fails to Announce Sales

Ubisoft has said the recently released Skull and Bones has achieved “record player engagement” since launch, although it has yet to announce how many copies it’s sold or how many players it has.

In a note to press announcing the pirate game’s first season, Ubisoft said Skull and Bones has over four hours of average daily playtime, which is the second highest ever at the company.

But what does this mean, exactly? Without a sales figure or monthly active user (MAU) or daily active user (DAU) numbers, it’s impossible to tell how well Skull and Bones has done. Skull and Bones is not on Steam, either, so we don’t have Valve’s official player concurrents tracking to help paint a picture. But from Ubisoft’s statement we can glean that those who are playing Skull and Bones are putting in the hours. It’s worth noting Skull and Bones launched with an eight-hour free trial, offering players the chance to test the waters before jumping in with a $70 purchase.

What we do know for sure is the number of people playing Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag rose 200% on Steam after the release of Skull and Bones, according to tracking website SteamDB. Black Flag’s number spiked on February 16: the day Skull and Bones finally released after years of troubled development.

Announced in 2017, Skull and Bones initially looked set to provide players with more of what made Black Flag so popular: intense and dramatic ocean adventuring and combat. Six delays seemingly caused excitement to dwindle, however, and Skull and Bones finally arrived in 2024 to little fanfare. “Skull and Bones is a maritime RPG with a strong foundation, even if it feels like a live-service first draft,” IGN said in our 7/10 review.

Meanwhile, Season 1, dubbed Raging Tides, sees players “embark on a perilous journey against the vicious Pirate Lord Philippe La Peste and his legendary pirate ship, La Potence”, Ubisoft said. “From dominating a Legendary Pirate Lord and World Events to growing an empire, this first addition to the post-launch plan signals the start of an exhilarating journey on the high seas.”

Here’s the list of new content coming to Skull and Bones with Season 1 Raging Tides:

• Tides of Terror: Increasingly difficult seasonal events where players will fight against La Peste’s Fleet of Pestilence. Players will eventually go against him in a World Event, culminating in a final showdown where they will seek out his base of operations, the Blighted Bastion, for an epic battle.
• New World Events: Players will encounter Elite Warships from megacorporations like the DMC (Opwelling), and local factions like the Clan of Fara (Mizerja). Merchant Convoys carrying high-value loot will also be present along trade routes in the Indian Ocean.
• New Bounties: Player can pick up bounties leading them to terrifying legends such as the mysterious Ghost Ship (Rode Maangodin) that haunts the Open Seas, or the terrifying Sea Monster (Zamaharibu) that awaits unsuspecting pirates in the depths.
• New Leaderboard rewards: Higher-tier weapons and equipment. Seasonal Smuggler Pass: Three free tracks allow players to acquire new gameplay items and blueprints to further optimize and customize their ship’s loadout. There will also be free cosmetics from captain and ship cosmetic sets to resources and Pieces of Eight. The Premium pass also adds extra cosmetics and Gold premium currency.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.