The open oceans of gaming have never been as popular as right now. While Skull and Bones might not have been the hidden treasure players were hoping for, many are digging deep to unearth a gem lost to time.
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is seeing a resurgence on Steam following the release of Ubisoft’s shipping simulator earlier this month, with player numbers surging over 200 percent. On Feb. 19, the decade-old hit peaked with more than 35,00 players. That’s the biggest surge in players for Black Flag in three years.
The climb in players began on Feb. 16, the day Skull and Bones launched, so it’s easy to speculate that gamers were looking to quench a craving for the seas. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag has one of the best implementations of ship combat in gaming, and it comes alongside the textbook AC stealth formula.
Meanwhile, Skull and Bones has been taking damage since its release, with many fans left disappointed by the lack of unique content and emphasis on microtransactions. It remains to be seen how it will age, but it has not been smooth sailing for this so-called AAAA game.
Unfortunately, Skull and Bones isn’t available on Steam, so it is difficult to see an exact player count for the game. If you want to test out the ships on PC, you have to purchase and play Skull and Bones through Epic Games.
Ultimately Ubisoft is still the winner here having published both Skull and Bones and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, which would make it the defacto king of the ship simulating space. If you’ve never played Black Flag, now might be the perfect time for you to do so, with the game available at a major discount on Steam at the time of writing.
