A recent investigation into Xbox achievement statistics for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla paints an interesting picture of player engagement. The data reveals a significant drop-off in progress early on, with over 40% of Xbox players globally never leaving the game’s starting region of Norway. It generally takes only four hours of gameplay to reach England.
The key indicator is the achievement “To England!” unlocked upon setting sail for the game’s main setting. True Achievements based this on the fact that 100% of tracked players completed the unmissable prologue. However, the numbers for getting the next unmissable achievement show that many abandon the game after the initial stretch in Norway.
I am one of the people who did not reach England, but I got very close. It’s just such a slog to get through everything, and the story isn’t very interesting. Mirage was no better. After a few hours, I gave up on that as well. I am a huge Assassin’s Creed fan, playing since the first game was released, but these recent ones are just so boring.
Getting to England takes a while longer if you do the side stuff, but a lot of content is just sprinkled around to make the world seem full. Each one feels like it’s just there to stretch the playtime because they’re neither fun nor interesting. Ubisoft is known to sprinkle things in their game worlds with little substance. So it’s easy to see why players who may have been less than impressed by the main story wouldn’t stick around for the side content.
Ultimately, these statistics provide a great look into how their fanbase is seeing Ubisoft. It’s valuable information for their marketing team and even the development team. When used this way, achievements can tell you where you’re losing your main player base and what activities you thought were fun were not worth doing.
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