Ubisoft has proudly announced that its latest new release, the city building strategy game Anno 117: Pax Romana, has registered a record launch for the franchise. There have been seven Anno installments released throughout 25 years, but none captivated the audience as much as the title that launched last week.
Developed by Ubisoft Mainz (previously known as Blue Byte), Anno 117: Pax Romana secured the second spot on last week's Steam chart, beating even Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which launched only a day later. You don't have to take the publisher's word for it, as SteamDB confirmed the news with the following Steam Top 5 chart for the week between November 11 and 18:
- ARC Raiders
- Anno 117: Pax Romana
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Battlefield 6
- Steam Deck
Granted, Black Ops 7 famously delivered its own records, albeit negative, when it comes to the Call of Duty franchise. On Steam, the game only reached a concurrent player peak of around 100K users, whereas Black Ops 6 peaked at 315K when it launched last year.
That has, however, little to do with Anno 117: Pax Romana, whose developers are right to celebrate. Even critical acclaim is unprecedented so far, with a Metacritic average of 85 and 94% of OpenCritic reviews recommending the game. Perhaps the most important data point is that users are playing it a lot: the average daily playtime is 3,7 hours.
Stéphane Jankowski, Executive Producer on Anno, said in a statement:
Anno 117: Pax Romana officially sets sail, marking a new chapter for our beloved franchise and for everyone who poured their passion, creativity, and countless hours into it. We are humbled by the incredible response from our player. Our team remains dedicated, continuously listening to feedback and striving to deliver the ambitious Year 1 content expanding our game world to the province of Egypt!
Did you buy the game, and if so, are you having fun with it? Let us know in the comments.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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