Assassin’s Creed Shadows Dominates: March’s Top-Selling Game in the U.S.

Last month, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was launched and quickly became the top-selling game in dollar sales across the United States for March 2025.

Data from the analytics firm Circana indicates that Assassin’s Creed Shadows not only topped the charts in March but also secured the position of the year’s second highest-selling game, just behind Monster Hunter: Wilds and surpassing Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Additionally, it was the best-selling game on the Xbox platform and the second highest on both PlayStation and Steam for the month.

We spoke with Mat Piscatella, a Circana analyst, to gain further insights into the game’s impressive debut. Piscatella explained that the launch of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is the third largest in the franchise’s history in the U.S., only trailing behind Assassin’s Creed 3 and Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. He remarked, “It’s off to a strong start, and it will be interesting to see how it progresses.”

In related news, Ubisoft recently established a subsidiary focused on its major franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, with a significant investment of approximately €1.16 billion ($1.25 billion) from Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate.

Following the announcement that Assassin’s Creed Shadows had reached over 3 million players, it’s clear Ubisoft is under considerable pressure to ensure its success. Prior to the release of Shadows, the company faced several setbacks including notable failures, layoffs, studio shutdowns, and game cancellations, which significantly affected its stock price, bringing it to a record low.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows achieved the second highest first-day sales revenue in the franchise’s history, trailing only behind Valhalla. It also set a new record for the biggest Ubisoft launch day on the PlayStation Store and has accumulated over 40 million hours of gameplay so far.

March was a notable month for game releases, with seven new titles entering the top 20 sales chart, including WWE 2K24 at number four and Split Fiction at number five. Other notable entries were Bleach: Rebirth of Souls, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars. Additionally, Hello Kitty Island Adventure made a notable debut on the Nintendo Switch, and the free-to-play game FragPunk entered the Steam top 10 chart based on Monthly Active Users (MAUs), debuting at number eight.

Another significant debut was MLB: The Show 25, which landed just behind Assassin’s Creed in sales and saw a 23% increase over its predecessor’s launch last year, making it the best-selling game on PlayStation for the month.

Other games that performed well in March included Fortnite, which led in MAUs on both Xbox and PlayStation. Dragon Age: The Veilguard made a significant jump from number 103 in February to number 10 in March on PlayStation, likely due to its addition to PS+. The co-op horror game R.E.P.O. also made a dramatic rise from its debut in February, jumping from number 93 to number one on the Steam MAU charts in March, probably driven by increased viral popularity on social media.

Despite these successes, overall game spending in March dropped by 6% year-over-year to $4.7 billion, with content spending falling 4% to $4.2 billion, as reported by Circana. The only areas of growth were non-mobile subscriptions and digital premium downloads on consoles.

When asked about the decline in content spending, Piscatella attributed much of it to a decrease in mobile spending, which fell by 6% according to SensorTower. He noted, “The significant role of mobile in content spending means any downturn there tends to impact the overall market. Although there was an increase in console full game download spending this March, declines in mobile and PC full game spending, along with a drop in digital addon content spending, led to an overall decrease in content revenue.”

Hardware spending also saw a decline, dropping 25% year-over-year to $286 million, marking the lowest March total since 2019. The PlayStation 5 was the month’s best-selling console despite a 26% decline in sales year-over-year. Xbox and Nintendo Switch also saw declines in sales, with the latter likely impacted by anticipation of its upcoming successor, the Nintendo Switch 2.

Top 20 Best-Selling Games in the U.S. for March 2025:

1. Assassin’s Creed: Shadows (NEW)
2. MLB: The Show 25 (NEW)
3. Monster Hunter: Wilds
4. WWE 2K25 (NEW)
5. Split Fiction (NEW)
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
7. PGA Tour 2K25
8. NBA 2K25
9. Bleach: Rebirth of Souls (NEW)
10. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
11. Minecraft
12. Grand Theft Auto V
13. EA Sports FC 25
14. Red Dead Redemption II
15. Madden NFL 25
16. Elden Ring
17. Xenoblade Chronicles X (NEW)
18. Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune & Dunan Unification Wars (NEW)
19. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
20. EA Sports College Football 25

* Some or all digital sales data for some titles, including those from publishers like Nintendo and Take-Two, are not included in Circana’s reports.