A screenshot of Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

A new rumor claims that Ubisoft only sold 1 million copies total for Star Wars Outlaws far lower than analyst expectations of 5 million.

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

This rumor comes from Grant Taylor-Hill at Insider Gaming who reports, “We have secured a current sales figure from sources close to the game. At the time of writing, Star Wars Outlaws has just ticked over one million sales worldwide.

As noted by Hill, Assassin’s Creed Mirage reportedly sold five million copies after three months.

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

This appears to be even worse than initial reports. Games Industry writer Christopher Dring noted that according to the UK Sales Chart that Star Wars Outlaws had done “about half of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”

Christopher Dring on X

It is also clearly significantly lower than what market analysts were expecting. Barclays’ Nick Dempsey suggested that Ubisoft would sell around 5 million units back during the company’s Q1 FY2024 Sales report in May. And he thought that number was conservative given Ubisoft’s bullishness on the game despite multiple warning flags that the game was in trouble.

Dempsey asked, “When I look at the guidance for Q2 and if I assume something similar for back catalog in Q2 as Q1 kind of getting to €200 to €230 million, that sort of range. For the new release Star Wars Outlaws, when I look at the $70 price and then assuming what you might get from it, I’m getting to around 5 million units, something in that sort of bracket. First of all, where could I be going wrong with that thinking? Secondly, are you just being pretty conservative in your guidance because I guess given the interest in that game we might have thought it would be more than 5 million units?”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

This extremely low number makes sense given Ubisoft’s recent press release significantly lowering its expected net bookings for the second quarter down from €500 million to €350-370m million. A 30% decline. In fact, it lowered its entire yearly net books to “around €1.95bn, and around break-even non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow.”

The company also admitted that the cut was made as a “reflection of decisions taken for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the softer than expected launch for Star Wars Outlaws.”

It also noted, “Additionally, despite solid ratings (Metacritic 76) and user scores across the First Party and Epic stores (3.9/5) that reflect an immersive and authentic Star Wars universe, Star Wars Outlaws initial sales proved softer than expected.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

CEO Yves Guillemot also added, “Our second quarter performance fell short of our expectations, prompting us to address this swiftly and firmly, with an even greater focus on a player-centric, gameplay-first approach and an unwavering commitment to the long-term value of our brands.”

It was so bad he announced that the Board of Directors has launched an internal review of the company, “Beyond the first important short-term actions undertaken, the Executive Committee, under the supervision of the Board of Directors, is launching a review aimed at further improving our execution, notably in this player-centric approach, and accelerating our strategic path towards a higher performing model to the benefit of our stakeholders and shareholders.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

The company indicated it does hope to boost sales by polishing the game, “In response to player feedback, Ubisoft’s development teams are currently fully mobilized to swiftly implement a series of updates to
polish and improve the player experience in order to engage a large audience during the holiday season to position Star Wars Outlaws as a strong long-term performer.”

It also plans to release it to Steam, “The game will be available on Steam on November 21.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

These dismal sales are an even bigger black eye when one realizes that the company threw a ton of money at this game with Guillemot sharing back in May that the game was receiving Ubisoft’s largest marketing budget ever.

He said, “What we have factored in is a strong launch for Star Wars Outlaws that reflects the fact that it is among the most awaited games of the industry this year and a really strong, positive community sentiment. And also, the fact, that we are coming with the biggest marketing campaign ever, so far, for [an] Ubisoft game. So that’s what we’ve been factoring in the second quarter.”

A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

What do you make of this rumor that Star Wars Outlaws only sold 1 million units in a month since release?