Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones has dethroned Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League as the worst live service game of 2024. While we’re, embarrassingly, known as Suicide Squad apologists, Ubisoft’s live service title is somehow selling worse, and we can’t even be bothered to try it.
In recent weeks, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League has somehow had less active players than the original Watch_Dogs. While we were very positive in our Suicide Squad game review, the general public isn’t biting on the new live service game.
Via Forbes, Skull and Bones is faring even worse, echoing the already loud sentiment that the live service bubble has burst. While free-to-play games are succeeding with huge updates like The Finals Season 2 and PUBG’s 2024 roadmap adding destructive environments, the $70 live service game just isn’t appealing.
The report explains that Skull and Bones spent just one day in the top ten PlayStation games upon release. In comparison, Suicide Squad debuted as the number one PS game before falling off. Suicide Squad was also the third best-selling game of February; Skull and Bones sits in eighth place.
When it comes to PC, Skull and Bones has no trackable player count. While Ubisoft has started bringing games such as Assassin’s Creed to Steam, Skull and Bones is only available via Ubisoft Connect.
Xbox players also aren’t buying into Skull and Bones. At the time of writing, the live service pirate game has just scraped into the top 50 played games, sitting at 47th place. After all, if you have an Xbox, you’re probably playing Sea of Thieves.
Obviously, Skull and Bones’ failure isn’t indicative of the genre. The upcoming Sea of Thieves PS5 port is already the best selling PlayStation game at the time of writing. It just shows that players don’t want to spend $70 on a live service game, especially with Ubisoft’s usual bout of predatory microtransaction fluff.
For the six people who care, Skull and Bones is currently available for Xbox, PlayStation and PC. While it did cost $70 on launch, the “AAAA game” is already being heavily discounted everywhere.