Ubisoft’s premier pirate adventure Skull and Bones has faced stormy seas since its original launch six months ago, following on from an already troubled 11-year development cycle. Finally making its way to Steam as of Thursday August 22, alongside numerous PC-focused improvements there was hope it would catch some wind in its sails. However, only a few hundred players have shown up so far.
Escaping Ubisoft Connect and launching on Steam, the heart of PC gaming, was undoubtedly a good move for Skull and Bones. More people browse the Steam store per day than Ubisoft’s dedicated launcher, so if anything was going to turn things around at this point, it would be bringing the pirate RPG to the players.
Nevertheless, Skull and Bones reached a peak of just 394 concurrent players on Steam on its release day – as of this writing, some 24 hours later, this has jumped slightly to 432, but still remains shy of what might be considered its nearest pirate game rival, Sea of Thieves, which currently has 5,667 players.
In fact, Skull and Bones, despite being the much newer game, has a lower player count than one of its key inspirations, Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. In the last day, Black Flag has attracted a high of 758 concurrent players and right now, as of this writing, has just over a hundred more than Skull and Bones.
Skull and Bones’ Steam release is marked by a substantial 60% discount, available until September 5, which lowers the price of the game down to $24 / £20. Perhaps the planned free trial and Steam Deck version will also earn Skull and Bones more attention, but these have been delayed to an as-of-yet unspecified date.
Despite the frequent content updates since launch, including Season 3, which also arrived alongside the Steam release, Skull and Bones currently has a ‘mixed’ rating on Valve’s store – of the 64 user reviews posted so far, 50% are positive. If you’re curious to try it out for yourself, check out our Skull and Bones review for a more detailed breakdown of what’s good and what’s not.
Alternatively, if you’re already on board, our guide to the best Skull and Bones ships will arm you with everything you need for the high seas. Otherwise, you might want to try one of the best open-world games instead.
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