Earlier this week, Ubisoft finally released XDefiant, a free-to-play shooter first announced nearly three years ago. Here is how the game performed at launch.
- According to a report from Insider Gaming, XDefiant reached 1 million unique players in its first two and a half hours.
- The game surpassed 3 million users within 48 hours, attracting around 300k concurrent players across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
- On PC, XDefiant is available exclusively on the Ubisoft Connect platform, so there are no public metrics like in the case with other free-to-play live service titles available on Steam.
- Tom Henderson also said XDefiant is now the fastest title in Ubisoft history to reach 1 million unique users.
- Last year, Ubisoft noted the closed beta of XDefiant reached over 1 million players and “strong retention.” The publisher has yet to reveal the game’s launch figures.
- “While mastering free-to-play is hard, and it is very important to remain prudent, recent developments are encouraging,” CEO Yves Guillemot said at the time.
The French company is now betting big on free-to-play titles in its pipeline. In addition to XDefiant, it plans to launch Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence later this year. These games should contribute to long-term growth, along with Ubisoft’s core area of AAA open world franchises such as Assassin’s Creed.
“With these core verticals, and leveraging ongoing investments in our technologies to reach and maintain a competitive advantage, we aim to drive growth and recurrence with the objective to gradually expand operating income and generate robust free cash flow,” Guillemot said in Ubisoft’s FY24 report.
While the launch of XDefiant looks impressive in terms of player numbers, the big question is whether the game can retain users in the long run and avoid becoming another live service abandoned after a few seasons.