Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced set a new high-water mark for Ubisoft on Steam within hours of its worldwide release on July 9, 2026. The remake of the 2013 pirate adventure hit a peak of 99,451 concurrent players, the largest launch-day crowd any Ubisoft game has drawn on the platform. That success arrived alongside an early wave of negative Steam reviews, creating an unusual split between raw player numbers and launch sentiment.
Quick answer: Black Flag Resynced peaked at 99,451 concurrent Steam players at launch, passing Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ 64,825 record and making it Ubisoft’s highest Steam peak. It opened with a Mostly Negative Steam rating driven by Denuvo DRM, roughly $85 in extra DLC, and 30 FPS cutscenes, then climbed back toward positive as more reviews came in.
The Steam player peak and how it compares
The launch peak stopped just short of the 100,000 mark. It comfortably cleared the previous franchise record held by Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which topped out around 64,825 players during its early 2025 debut. The remake also dwarfed the original 2013 release of Black Flag, beating that game’s Steam peak roughly six times over.
The concurrent count did not hold at its opening high. After the initial surge, the player total settled below 77,000, which is normal behavior once a launch-day rush passes.
| Game | Steam peak players |
|---|---|
| Black Flag Resynced (2026) | 99,451 |
| Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2025) | ~64,825 |
| Black Flag Resynced, later same day | below 77,000 |
One reason the number stands out is that Ubisoft has historically split its PC sales between the Ubisoft Store and Steam, which held down concurrent counts on any single storefront. Even against that history, the remake outpaced everything the publisher has released on Steam.
Why the Steam reviews turned negative at launch
Despite the crowd, the game opened with a Mostly Negative rating on Steam. The complaints centered on three specific issues rather than the core gameplay itself.
| Complaint | Detail |
|---|---|
| DRM and launcher | Uses Denuvo anti-tamper DRM on PC alongside the Ubisoft Launcher. |
| DLC pricing | Around $84.91 in extra content, mostly cosmetic character and ship skins at $9.99 each, much of it outside the Deluxe Edition. |
| 30 FPS cutscenes | A known issue locks cutscenes to 30 FPS when specific graphics options are set to Ultra High. |
Ubisoft flagged the cutscene problem on the Steam page and offered a temporary workaround, saying a proper fix would follow in the days after launch. The DLC pricing drew particular attention because the combined cost of the add-ons exceeded the price of the base game, and many of those packs were sold separately rather than bundled into the premium edition.
As more players weighed in, the Steam rating recovered. It moved off the Mostly Negative launch score and climbed toward a more positive standing, sitting at a mixed 67% across 949 English reviews at one measurement point. The negative reviews largely focused on the DRM, pricing, and cutscene cap rather than reporting broad gameplay problems.
Critic scores tell a different story
The professional critic response was strongly favorable, which widens the gap with the rocky Steam debut. The remake carries an OpenCritic average of 88 with 96% of critics recommending it, and a Metacritic score of 84 based on 84 reviews. Reviewers repeatedly praised the updated visuals, the reworked combat, the naval battles, and the added story content, while noting that the modernized combat can feel inconsistent and that removing the original’s modern-day Abstergo sections divides opinion.
Built by Ubisoft Singapore on the Anvil Engine, the remake keeps Edward Kenway’s Caribbean story intact while trimming the original’s rougher edges. It is a solo, story-driven experience, and Ubisoft deliberately dropped the 2013 game’s separate DLC campaigns and multiplayer to focus on that single-player adventure.
Platforms, Steam Deck support, and PC requirements
Black Flag Resynced launched the same day across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S. On PC it is Steam Deck Verified, so it runs on that handheld out of the box, and it is confirmed to work on the Steam Machine by default.
The PC recommended specifications are relatively modest for a modern release. The game targets older graphics cards such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, but a solid-state drive is required rather than optional. You can find the PC version on its official Steam store page.
The remake’s launch numbers show how much goodwill Black Flag still carries more than a decade after its debut, even as the DRM, DLC pricing, and technical caps kept its early Steam reception uneven. With a cutscene fix promised and the rating already recovering, the question now is how many of those launch players stick with Edward Kenway once the opening rush fades.
