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- Ubisoft launched its free-to-play Call of Duty-like shooter on May 21.
- Following months of excitement, XDefiant has reached over 700K concurrent players.
- This makes it one of Ubisoft’s biggest games and the publisher’s biggest free-to-play success to date.
It seems that a competitor to the well-established first-person shooter IP, Call of Duty, has arrived. The early reviews of Ubisoft’s latest free-to-play shooter, XDefiant, released on May 21, look impressive.
However, what’s more interesting is that the game has gathered an impressive fanbase already, boasting 8 million unique players already.
Why it matters: With live-service releases like Skull and Bones disappointing, this first-person shooter could be the golden goose Ubisoft has been searching for.
As reported by Insider Gaming, XDefiant has already become one of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises. These figures also make it the publisher’s most successful venture into the free-to-play market to date.
According to the report, this first-person shooter reached 1 million players within just 2.5 hours. However, this was just the beginning since it tripled this player count by the end of the first two days.
Ubisoft seemed to have expected 5 million unique players in the first month. To the developer’s surprise, the game has vastly exceeded this player count in just one week. The report also states that XDefiant reached 700,000 concurrent players at its peak.
While this may be less impressive for a free-to-play title than a premium release, very few releases can boast this many players. It is also important to note that Ubisoft did not launch XDefiant on Steam.
At its current pace, this first-person shooter is on track to reach 10 million players very soon.
Elsewhere, Circana reports that XDefiant was ranked among the most played games list on Saturday in the US and has ranked fourth in PS5 DAU, falling just behind Call of Duty, Fortnite, and NBA 2K24.
On the Xbox side, it ranked 3rd in DAU, behind only Call of Duty and Fortnite, indicating that Ubisoft has found the free-to-play hit it has been searching for. The studio is now targeting long-term support to continue this momentum.
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[News Reporter]
Bawal is an MBBS student by day and a gaming journalist by night. He has been gaming since childhood, growing fond of the creativity and innovation of the industry. His career as a gaming journalist started one year ago, and his journey has allowed him to write reviews, previews, and features for various sites. Bawal has also been cited in reputed websites such as Screenrant, PCGamesN, WCCFTech, GamesRadar, and more.
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