A new rumor claims that Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs franchise is “dead and buried” following the failure of 2020’s Watch Dogs: Legion.
A screenshot from Watch Dogs: Legion (2020), Ubisoft Toronto
This rumor comes from French YouTuber and streamer xj0nathan who wrote on X with translation via DeepL, “Watch Dogs is normally dead and buried. The flop of Legion destroyed the license’s projects (including a rather original Battle Royale).”
xj0nathan on X
Watch Dogs: Legion received mediocre user scores when it released. On Metacritic the game has an average User Score of 6.2 across all platforms with 361 positive reviews, 125 mixed reviews, and 230 negative reviews.
Watch Dogs: Legion Metacritic User Reviews
While Ubisoft has not released financial information regarding the game’s costs or sales, the company did tout the game alongside Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Immortals Fenyx Rising as being in the top 7 best sellers for third quarter in FY 20-21.
In their sales report the company stated, “Ubisoft ranked second-leading publisher – with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and Immortals Fenyx Rising all in the top 7 best sellers” for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
In the same report, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet stated, “The quarter was marked by the success of Just Dance 2021 and excellent reviews for Immortal Fenix Rising and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The latter delivered record sales and ranked, with Watch Dogs: Legion, among the top four best sellers on the new generation consoles.”
A screenshot from Watch Dogs: Legion (2020), Ubisoft Toronto
In the company’s annual earnings report for the full 2020-2021 FY, Ubisoft claimed it had “robust growth for Brawlhalla, Far Cry, For Honor, Rabbis, The Crew, [and] Watch Dogs.”
Duguet noted, “Ubisoft delivered a record year at the top and bottom lines thanks to an underlying performance that was significantly stronger than expected. This reflects the progress achieved in the diversification and recurrence of our revenues. We can rely on a deep portfolio of owned IPs, from our tentpole franchises, Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed, The Division, Far Cry, Just Dance, Ghost Recon and Watch Dogs to fan-favorite brands like For Honor, The Crew, Brawlhalla and Mario + Rabbids.”
A screenshot from Watch Dogs: Legion (2020), Ubisoft Toronto
The game was released on Steam three years after its initial release, and it reached peak concurrent players of 5,048 in January 2023. The current 24-hour concurrent peak for the game is 208.
Watch Dogs: Legion Steam chart via SteamDB
SteamDB does note that the game had an all-time peak of 325,432 viewers on Twitch when it released over four years ago.
Furthermore the outlet notes the game has sold between 222,000 units and 385,000 units on Steam depending on various estimations from other data trackers such as VG Insights and PlayTracker.
Watch Dogs: Legion statistics via SteamDB
What do you make of this rumor that Ubisoft is done with their Watch Dogs franchise?
