Ubisoft has hit a major milestone with Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Not only has its open-world Viking simulator received accolades from fans and critics alike, but it's also Ubisoft's most successful game, ever.
Ubisoft CEO told investors during a conference call last night that Assassin's Creed Valhalla has earned over $1 billion in revenue, according to Axios (via Eurogamer). Valhalla is also Ubisoft's first game to break into the billions.
And it's not hard to see why. Although Valhalla had a bit of a rocky start, as most gigantic open-world games do, Ubisoft kept supporting their biggest Assassin's Creed game to date with continuous updates that fixed the bugs and then added new content. Valhalla's first season brought expansions that added Ireland and Paris, bringing new stories, maps, and experiences. Alongside the paid expansions came plenty of free updates that added seasonal activities and new game modes. Although microtransactions are still a controversial topic, Valhalla also had plenty of cosmetic packs available for those looking to drop a few bucks on making Eivor look just a little bit cooler.
Valhalla didn't end after a year. Ubisoft kicked off Valhalla's second year of content with the free Odyssey/Valhalla crossover DLC that had Eivor and Kassandra duke it out to see which Assassin was best. In March, Valhalla will take on God of War with the Dawn of Ragnarok expansion, putting players in control of Odin the All Father himself with 35 hours of new gameplay on a map a third the size of England.
Dawn of Ragnarok will come out on March 10. Valhalla was supposed to get another expansion after it, but it seems Ubisoft decided to turn it into a standalone game. A report from Bloomberg states Valhalla's Basim will star in a stealth-focused, non-open-world game codenamed Rift. No release window was mentioned, but Ubisoft’s 2023 schedule is looking pretty light right now.