Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced day-one DLC made Ubisoft $1 million on Steam despite the backlash

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launched to strong sales — 2 million copies across all platforms in the first 24 hours — but its day-one DLC collection quickly became a flashpoint. That $85 bundle of optional extras earned Ubisoft roughly $1 million on Steam alone in the first four days, according to analysis by Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott.

The game itself pulled in $35.1 million on Steam over those four days, meaning the DLC accounted for around 2.8% of that total. The cheapest pack, a $4.99 Map Pack that reveals collectible locations on the map, had the highest attach rate at 6.34% — about one in every 15 players bought it. The various $9.99 cosmetic packs, which offer premium skins for Edward Kenway or his ship the Jackdaw, each landed around a 2% attach rate. One pack drew particular criticism because it provides a gameplay advantage rather than being purely cosmetic, fueling accusations that Ubisoft was selling progression shortcuts on launch day. Ubisoft pushed back on that framing, with a community spokesperson stating: "The standard edition is the full, complete experience. Every mission, every island, the full story and the complete world are all there, with nothing held back."

The backlash dented Black Flag Resynced's Steam review score at launch, though it has since recovered to a "Very Positive" 80%. The base game itself has been well received critically — IGN gave it a 9/10. The DLC controversy is a familiar pattern for Ubisoft, which has faced recurring criticism for aggressive monetization in its releases. PC Gamer drew a pointed comparison to the infamous $90 World of Warcraft spectral tiger mount, which made Blizzard an estimated $15–17 million, noting that player outrage rarely translates into the kind of wallet-voting that would actually discourage the practice.

Ubisoft said it is reading all player feedback since launch. Whether that translates into any changes to how Resynced's DLC is presented — the game currently surfaces these packs to players via an in-game pop-up — remains to be seen.