Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time

Here's when you can play and pre-load on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Image credit: Ubisoft

Guide by Jessica Orr Senior Guides Writer

Published on March 13, 2025

Assassin's Creed Shadows may have been hit with a few delays, but it's finally releasing this March in 2025.

You don't have long to wait now until your adventures with Naoe and Yasuke begin in Assassin's Creed Shadows, so to help you plan for its big release, we've detailed the Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S below.

We've also covered the Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-load date and time on each platform, and all of the pre-order bonuses you can get.

On this page:

Release date and time
Pre-load date and time
Pre-order bonuses

Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time

Assassin's Creed Shadows releases on Thursday 20th March, 2025 - but depending on your timezone, and what platform you're playing it on, Shadows might actually release on Wednesday 19th of March for you.

PS5 and Xbox Series X/S

The Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S is Thursday 20th March at 12am, no matter what time zone you're in.

This means that if your Xbox just so happened to take a trip to New Zealand when it ticks over to 12am there in the NZDT timezone, you could play Assassin's Creed Shadows early on Xbox Series X/S. 12am in the NZDT timezone works out as Wednesday 19th March at 11am in the UK, 12pm in Europe (CET), 4am in the PT timezone, and 7am in the ET timezone.

PC (Steam)

Here's the Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time if you're playing on PC via Steam:

UK: Thursday 20th March, 4am (GMT)
Europe: Thursday 20th March, 5am (CET)
West Coast US: Wednesday 19th March, 9pm (PT)
East Coast US: Thursday 20th March, 12am (ET)
Japan: Thursday 20th March, 1pm (JST)
Australia: Thursday 20th March, 3pm (AET)

PC (Ubisoft Connect)

Here's the Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and time if you plan on playing it on PC via Ubisoft Connect:

UK: Wednesday 19th March, 10pm (GMT)
Europe: Wednesday 19th March, 11pm (CET)
West Coast US: Wednesday 19th March, 9pm (PT)
East Coast US: Thursday 20th March, 12am (ET)
Japan: Wednesday 19th March, 9pm (JST)
Australia: Wednesday 19th March, 11pm (AET)

World map of Assassin's Creed Shadows release date and timings on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. — Here's a map picture of the global release date and times, if you prefer to see it that way. | Image credit: Ubisoft

MacOS

Here's when you on play Assassin's Creed Shadows on MacOS:

Europe, the Middle East and Africa & Latin America: Thursday 20th March at 12pm (UTC)
US, Canada, Mexico: Thursday 20th March at 2pm (UTC)
Asia-Pacific: Wednesday 19th March at 3pm (UTC)
Australia: Wednesday 19th March at 6pm (UTC)
Middle East North Africa: Wednesday 19th March at 7pm (UTC)

Other platforms

You can play Assassin's Creed Shadows from Thursday 20th March at 4am (UTC) if you plan on playing it via the Epic Games Store, Geforce Now, or Luna.

Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-load date and time

The pre-load date for Shadows is also different depending on what console you plan on playing it on.

Fair warning though that the install size is 107GB on Xbox, and should be roughly the same on PS5 and PC - so you might want to free up some space ahead of time!

Xbox Series X/S

You can pre-load Assassin's Creed Shadows on the Xbox Series X/S right now!

PS5

The pre-load time is Tuesday 18th March at 12am in your local timezone if you plan on playing Assassin's Creed Shadows on a PS5.

PC

Although no launcher names or playing methods were mentioned, we know that you can generally pre-load Assassin's Creed Shadows from Monday 17th March at 4pm (GMT) on PC.

In other time zones, the Shadows PC pre-load date and time is:

UK: Monday 17th March, 4pm (GMT)
Europe: Monday 17th March, 5pm (CET)
West Coast US: Monday 17th March, 9am (PT)
East Coast US: Monday 17th March, 12pm (ET)
Japan: Tuesday 18th March, 1am (JST)
Australia: Tuesday 18th March, 3am (AET)

Assassin's Creed Shadows heroes Naoe and Yasuke. — Image credit: Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-order bonuses

If it helps make your mind up whether it's worth splurging on a more expensive edition or not, here's everything you get in the AC Shadows Standard Edition and Digital Deluxe Edition pre-orders: