Assassin’s Creed IV hits 10m, is failing to match AC3’s pace

Ubisoft shipped 10m copies of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag by the end of 2013, the company has confirmed.

However, as CVG notes, by the same stage in its life predecessor Assassin’s Creed 3 had seen over 12m units shipped. However, the company added that sales of ACIV have been stronger in comparison since the turn of the year.

"We expect to reach around 11m by the end of March – a remarkable performance close to the high end of our plan," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said.

"Pricing was very strong, almost on par with last year’s level. We are extremely proud of this achievement notably in the face of a challenging environment and an exceptionally competitive context."

Its inability to keep up with its predecessor is hardly a surprise, of course. While FIFA 14 may have eventually grown to beat the sales of its predecessor, all other established IPs – such as most notably Call of Duty and Battlefield – have suffered year-on-year sales declines thanks to the turbulence created by the transition to next-gen.