Ubisoft

How many copies did Watch Dogs sell? — 2024 statistics

Unleashing the hounds of data surveillance.

Fact-checked
First Released
May 27, 2014
Genre
Action-adventure
Developer
Ubisoft
Publisher
Ubisoft

In the world of hacking and tech-driven stories, Watch Dogs is a notable series. It kicked off in 2014 and combines hacking with action-packed elements like shooting, driving, and puzzles. To get a sense of how well it’s done in the gaming world, let’s first take a look at Watch Dogs sales. So, in this modern era, where hacking and tech intrigue us all, let’s dive into the exciting world of Watch Dogs. The games have brought a lot to the gaming industry and we’re here to present some Watch Dogs statistics and facts to see how the series has performed over the years and what to expect of it in the future. By the way, feel free to check out everything we have to say about how much the esports industry is worth!

Watch Dogs key stats

Since the statistics we have do not cover enough topics to warrant multiple sections, we’re going to pack everything into this section and include everything from sales and revenue stats to relevant news surrounding the series and any possible advancements it has made, such as new games or new expansions on the horizon.

The Watch Dogs sales reached over 22 million copies.

(Source: VG Chartz)

  • Watch Dogs sold 10 million copies.
  • Watch Dogs 2 sold 10 million copies.

There aren’t many concrete sales facts for this series since it is only two games and Ubisoft usually keeps quiet when total sales and revenue are concerned. Nevertheless, Watch Dogs and Watch Dogs 2 have accumulated a solid number of sales despite the less-than-ideal launch period of the latter. Watch Dogs Legion also performed relatively well, as you will see in the next line of stats, but more numbers for that title are not available either.

Watch Dogs Legion sales reached 1.9 million units in just 3 days.

(Sources: VG Chartz, GamerTweak)

  • This is much more than Watch Dogs 2, which sold 431,000 digital units in November 2016.
  • Legio took third place among the best-selling retail games in October 2020.
  • The success of Legion can be attributed to Watch Dogs 2 being part of several giveaways at the start of that year.

It is well-known that Watch Dogs Legion was quite popular during its release period, and a good way to form a perspective on that is to just compare the sales of its predecessor — Watch Dogs 2. Watch Dogs 2 sold quite fewer copies in a month than Legion managed in three days, which tells you a lot about the hype and quality of Watch Dogs 2.

Before its delay, Watch Dogs’ budget was over $68 million.

(Sources: Nintendo Everything, Forbes, Video Gamer)

  • The game became the fastest-selling new IP in Ubisoft’s history in May 2014.
  • It also held the record for fastest-selling new IP in Western Europe.
  • Ubisoft’s sales in the first quarter of 2014 were up by 374%.

This was a good start for Watch Dogs as game budgets were quite lower than they are today, with a prime example being Red Dead Redemption 2, which managed to rack up a production and marketing budget of $540 million. $68 million is nothing in comparison to that, but it is also a smaller game and it is notably less successful. Nevertheless, the records that Watch Dogs managed to set attest to its quality.

Watch Dogs Legion has over 9 million playable characters.

(Source: HappyGamer)

  • Users complained about previous Watch Dogs games lacking features and variety, so Ubisoft added something new with Legion.
  • In Legion, you can recruit and play as any NPC in the game.
  • The characters are procedurally generated and can have any personality.
  • NPCs have different specialties that can assist the player in getting through the game.

This is the sort of variety that Watch Dogs fans were looking for in the previous games. having a few NPCs you can recruit and control is one thing, but giving players an ocean of procedurally-generated NPCs is an entirely different thing.

A Watch Dogs 2 money cheat allowed players to get $1 million in less than an hour.

(Source: iTech Post)

  • This involves using an exploit that gives you $18,000 per minute.
  • In the “An Eye For Eye” mission, you have to wait until you reach the top of the freight elevator, then locate a man called Pablo the Skinner.
  • You hack him for the $18,000 then reload the most recent checkpoint to repeat the process.

Exploits can be found in many games all the time, and this one allows players to accumulate the necessary funds they might need to finish off their character or something else, it really depends on the players and their situation. Since this exploit can only be done in the later stages of the game, the money might not be necessary, but, who doesn’t want a million dollars?

The bad launch of Watch Dogs 2 resulted in a 6% year-over-year decrease in sales for Ubisoft.

(Source: Games Industry)

  • Ubisoft’s third fiscal quarter of 2017 showed a 6% year-over-year decrease in sales.
  • This equated to $564.9 million compared to the projected sales of $597 million.
  • When asked about the situation, Ubisoft said that the launch of Watch Dogs 2 was also to blame, as its release wasn’t as dynamic as they expected it to be.

This is the launch that we talked about earlier. While the game was still popular and managed to accumulate a solid number of sales, its launch was not what Ubisoft was looking for and it resulted in a significant loss of profit, as we’ve outlined in previous subheadings.

To sum up

Okay, so that is all we’ve had to say about the Watch Dogs series. As you can see, it had a good run but all sources point to Legion being the final entry in the series, unless Ubisoft decides to switch it up and go back to their series’ roots in Watch Dogs 4. You can never tell with big game companies since everything hinges on sales and revived attention to the series might change things completely. In the unlikely event of that happening, you can be sure that we will be here to give you all of the juicy details!

Sources

  • “Watch Dogs”. VG Chartz, 2020, https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=watch+dogs
  • “Watch Dogs: Legion Sold 1.9 Million Digital Units in 3 Days”. GamerTweak, 2020, https://gamertweak.com/watch-dogs-legion-sold-1-9-million-digital-units/
  • “Watch Dogs Legion Sold 1.9 Million Digital Units in 3 Days, Crash 4 Sold 402,000 Digital Units – Sales”. VG Chartz, 2021, https://www.vgchartz.com/article/446399/watch-dogs-legion-sold-19-million-digital-units-in-3-days-crash-4-sold-402000-digital-units/
  • “Watch Dogs’ budget was over $68 million prior to delay”. Nintendo Everything, 2014, https://nintendoeverything.com/watch-dogs-budget-was-over-68-million-prior-to-delay/
  • “‘Watch Dogs’ Shipped Over 8 Million Units, Ubisoft Sales Up 374% In First Quarter”. Forbes, 2014, https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/07/10/watch-dogs-shipped-over-8-million-units-ubisoft-earnings-up-374-in-first-quarter/?sh=37d3b32462dc
  • “Watch Dogs ships 9 million units”. VideoGamer, 2014, https://www.videogamer.com/news/watch-dogs-ships-9-million-units/
  • “Watch Dogs Legion Reportedly Has Over 9 Million Playable Characters”. HappyGamer, 2019, https://happygamer.com/watch-dogs-legion-reportedly-has-over-9-million-playable-characters-15473/
  • “Watch Dogs 2 Money Cheat Allows Players To Earn $1 Million In Less Than An Hour”. iTech Post, 2016, https://www.itechpost.com/articles/55490/20161117/watch-dogs-2-money-cheat-allows-players-1-million-less.htm
  • “Watch Dogs 2 launch “not as dynamic as expected”. Games Industry, 2017, https://www.gamesindustry.biz/watch-dogs-2-launch-not-as-dynamic-as-expected