All 10 Assassin’s Creed Games Ranked: Which One Should You Start With, and Which Is the Easiest?

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If you’re starting Assassin’s Creed today, the best place to jump in is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which only landed on July 9, 2026. It rebuilds pirate captain Edward Kenway’s story on the latest Anvil engine, costs $55, and runs on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. And if Shadows and its Sengoku-era Japan is what has your attention, starting there costs you nothing. Every game in the series swaps protagonist and era, so the story lands no matter where you begin.

That said, counting from the 2007 original there are more than a dozen mainline games. The stealth-first early years, the open-world RPG pivot that began with Origins, the back-to-basics Mirage, and the dual-protagonist Shadows. They share a name, but under the hood they are very different games, and most people who say Assassin’s Creed wasn’t for them simply landed on the one entry that wasn’t for them.

For this piece, I scored the 10 mainline games you can play on current hardware as of October 2026 across four axes, 100 points each: Accessibility, Content Volume, Setting and Story, and Current-Gen Comfort. They’re ranked by Total Score, with release date, development studio, price, protagonist, and setting listed for every game. At the end you’ll find where to buy all 10, what they cost, and which ones are on subscription.

I fell for this series on the Xbox 360 with II, and I still remember the night I ran across the rooftops of Florence. So yes, there’s some Ezio bias baked in here. Read accordingly.

Let’s start with the scores.

*Prices in this article are converted from Japanese yen at a reference rate of ¥153 = US$1.

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All 10 Assassin’s Creed Games Scored and Compared

I scored every game out of 100 on four axes. Accessibility covers how fast the controls and systems click. Content Volume covers how long the game runs and how much there is to do. Setting and Story covers how compelling the era is and how strong the protagonist’s arc is. Current-Gen Comfort covers how well each game runs and how current its support is on PS5, Switch 2, and PC as of October 2026. Don’t just read the totals, pick on the axis you care about most.

The top two are 2025 and 2026 releases, and Current-Gen Comfort is what pushed their totals up. Odyssey and Valhalla both score 100 for Content Volume, so if you have the time, feel free to bump them up the list. If you don’t, make Mirage and its Accessibility score of 92 your first pick.

No. 1 Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: The 2026 Remake Is the Best Way In

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launched July 9, 2026 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. It’s a full remake of 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, led by Ubisoft Singapore and published by Ubisoft, priced at $55 (tax included). You play pirate captain Edward Kenway in the golden age of piracy in the 18th-century Caribbean, crossing paths with real-life pirates like Blackbeard and Anne Bonny while getting dragged into the war between the Assassins and the Templars.

So what’s actually changed from the original? According to 4Gamer’s launch coverage, the visuals have been rebuilt on the latest Anvil engine, and combat, infiltration, traversal, and naval battles have all been reworked. Famitsu’s briefing writeup walks through new additions like fresh combat moves, ship armaments, and pets. The original IV has spent a decade being called the high-water mark for naval combat in this series, and getting that same skeleton with current-gen visuals and controls makes it about as good an entry point as exists.

The 90 for Accessibility reflects that, naval combat aside, there’s very little RPG scaffolding here and not much to memorize. A 98 for Current-Gen Comfort is simply what a three-month-old release earns. The 85 for Content Volume only means it’s shorter than the 100-hour sprawl of Odyssey or Valhalla, not that it feels thin.

No. 2 Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Divisive, Sure, but Tearing Across Sengoku Japan as an Assassin Is a Thrill

Assassin’s Creed Shadows launched March 20, 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and macOS, and a Nintendo Switch 2 version followed on December 2, 2025 at $47 (tax included). Ubisoft Quebec developed it and Ubisoft published it. There are two protagonists: Naoe Fujibayashi, a female shinobi from Iga, and Yasuke, the African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga. It’s the first time a mainline game has starred real historical figures. The setting is Sengoku-era Japan in 1581 and 1582, with Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, and Nara all walkable.

A million people played it on day one and two million by day two, and on July 23, 2025 Ubisoft announced it had passed five million players. It was reported to be the best-selling 2025 release in Europe. Its Metacritic score is 82, with critics praising the Japanese setting and story while flagging repetitive gameplay and a narrative that explains too little. The Claws of Awaji expansion arrived September 16, 2025, and reached the Switch 2 version on March 10, 2026. The Switch 2 release supports cross-progression, so you can carry your save between platforms.

Yasuke is portrayed in ways that depart from the historical record, and the louder problem is the insistence that the portrayal is historical fact. There’s a lot to pick at here, though if you read the whole mess as a kind of beef, it goes down a little easier?

The 85 for Accessibility comes from how differently Naoe the shinobi and Yasuke the samurai handle, because you have to learn both. Setting and Story gets an 88 because walking around Sengoku Japan is worth a lot, with the criticism that the story under-explains itself factored in. Being able to take an Assassin’s Creed game portable on Switch 2 is a series first, and that’s what the 94 for Current-Gen Comfort is built on.

No. 3 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Ancient Greece, Two Protagonists to Choose From, and 100 Hours

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey launched on October 5, 2018 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Ubisoft Quebec developed it, Ubisoft published it. The setting is ancient Greece around 430 BCE, in the middle of the Peloponnesian War, and you pick your protagonist: Alexios or Kassandra. This was the first game in the series to hand you that choice, and it also introduced decisions that change how the story ends. Whether you throw in with Athens or Sparta is on you, too.

Historical figures like Socrates, Hippocrates, and Leonidas I turn up, you scout from above with Ikaros the eagle, and you ride Phobos the horse. There are two expansions, Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis, at $22 each on Steam. The base game is $60 (tax included) on Steam, and the season pass is $35.

That Content Volume score of 100 is for the widest world in the series plus a story that branches. Accessibility 82 reflects how much gear and ability management a level-based RPG piles on — you cannot push through on stealth alone here. Current-Gen Comfort 85 means it runs through backward compatibility on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, but this is an eight-year-old game with no dedicated optimization.

No. 4 Assassin’s Creed Origins: Ancient Egypt, the Start of the RPG Era and the Birth of the Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed Origins released worldwide on October 27, 2017 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, published by Ubisoft. It is set in ancient Egypt around 49 BCE, in the final years of the Ptolemaic dynasty, and the protagonist is Bayek, a Medjay of Siwa. Jun Fukuyama voices him in the Japanese dub. His son’s death is what pushes him and his wife Aya to build the organization that becomes the Brotherhood, and that is the “origin” the title is pointing at.

Level-based RPG progression, photo mode, and Discovery Tour — the combat-free mode for learning history — all showed up here first. Everything Odyssey and Valhalla did afterward is built on top of that design. It costs $52 (tax included) on Steam.

Setting and Story 90 is for an ancient Egypt you can walk right inside the pyramids of, and for how strong Bayek and Aya’s story is. Accessibility 85 comes from having fewer choices than Odyssey, which means you rarely stall out wondering where to go. This is the game that explains why the Brotherhood exists at all, so if the series’ lore is what pulls you in, starting here is the logical move.

No. 5 Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Ninth-Century Vikings, the Series’ Biggest Entry at 1 Billion Dollars in Revenue

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla launched on November 10, 2020 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, with the PS5 version arriving in Japan on November 12. Ubisoft published it. The setting is the ninth century, during the Viking invasion of England, and you play Eivor, who leads the Raven Clan — and you can switch Eivor’s gender whenever you like. You push through the four kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia while building up a settlement of your own.

In February 2022, Ubisoft announced that Valhalla had cleared 1 billion US dollars in lifetime revenue, a first for any of the company’s major franchises. There are several expansions, including Wrath of the Druids and Dawn of Ragnarök; the base game is $60 on Steam and Dawn of Ragnarök is $35 (tax included). There is also a footnote worth knowing: the Japanese version shipped with its blood effects cut, and once CERO denied having anything to do with it, Ubisoft admitted the call had been made internally.

Content Volume 100 is there because the base game and its expansions together make the biggest package in the series. Accessibility 75 is the flip side of that: settlements, raids, gear — there are more systems to learn than in any other entry, and some players quit partway. Setting and Story 80 reflects that you get to walk through Norse mythology, but the story runs thin for how long the game is.

No. 6 Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Short, Dense, and the Easiest Way Back to the Original Formula

Assassin’s Creed Mirage launched on October 5, 2023 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, with the Steam version following on October 18, 2024. Ubisoft Bordeaux developed it and Ubisoft published it. The protagonist is Basim Ibn Ishaq, who also appears in Valhalla, and the game covers his journey from street thief to full member of the Hidden Ones. The setting is ninth-century Baghdad at the height of the Islamic Golden Age.

The development brief was a return to the roots: dial back the RPG systems and put stealth assassinations, one-hit kills, and hit-and-run escapes first. Reviews praised the density of the world and the feel of the assassinations, though some critics felt the story leaned too heavily on the previous game. Free add-on content called Valley of Memory started rolling out on November 18, 2025. The Steam price is $43 (tax included), making it the cheapest of the ten mainline games after the Ezio trilogy.

That 92 for Accessibility is the highest score among the ten games. There is very little to memorize, and the core loop of sneaking in, stabbing, and slipping away clicks almost immediately. The 70 for Content Volume is the price you pay for that: this is not even a third of Odyssey. If you are short on time, or you just want a taste of what the older games felt like, go ahead and pick this up before the game at No. 1.

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No. 7 Assassin’s Creed II: Ezio and Renaissance Florence, the Face of the Series

Assassin’s Creed II arrived in Japan on December 3, 2009 for PS3 and Xbox 360, published by Ubisoft. The protagonist is Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian nobleman in the Renaissance. His family is executed, revenge pushes him toward the Assassins, and you spend the game sprinting across the rooftops of Florence and Venice. By May 2010 it had sold nine million copies worldwide, and it became the game people picture when they hear the series name.

To play it on current hardware, you want Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection. It bundles II, Brotherhood, and Revelations along with the short films Lineage and Embers, and the PS4 version shipped on February 23, 2017. Multiplayer is not included. On Steam, the standalone Assassin’s Creed 2 goes for $9 (tax included).

The 95 for Setting and Story is the highest in the ten. There is a reason people are still talking about the script that charts Ezio’s growth and his revenge. The 70 for Current-Gen Comfort comes from the basic reality of playing a 2009 game through a 2017 port. The controls feel dated, and it takes a few hours to adjust.

No. 8 Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood: Leading the Order in Rome, with the Series’ First Multiplayer

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood came to Japan on December 9, 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360. Ubisoft Montreal led development with support from the Singapore, Bucharest, Quebec, and Annecy studios, and Ubisoft published it. Ezio carries over from the previous game, and the setting moves to Rome between roughly 1499 and 1507. You rebuild the Assassin Order while pushing back against Cesare Borgia’s ambitions.

What made this one feel new was running the Order itself, recruiting apprentice Assassins, training them, and sending them out on contracts, plus the first online multiplayer in a mainline console entry. The crossbow, the chained execution that beefed up combat, and the system that expanded villa restoration into renewing an entire city all start here. On current hardware, you play it through The Ezio Collection.

The 80 for Content Volume edges past II thanks to a bigger Rome and the Order management layer. The 90 for Setting and Story reflects a call on our part: as a continuation of II it is beautifully executed, but the shock of the opening salvo belongs to II. The fact that the series’ debut multiplayer is missing from The Ezio Collection is what dragged Current-Gen Comfort down to 70.

No. 9 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: London in 1868, and the Frye Twins

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate launched in Japan on November 12, 2015 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Ubisoft Quebec developed it and Ubisoft published it. The setting is Victorian London in 1868, deep into the Industrial Revolution, and the leads are the twins Jacob Frye and Evie Frye. You build a criminal gang and take London back from the Templars who run it. There is no multiplayer.

Firing the rope launcher across a gap between buildings, then hopping into a carriage and tearing down the street, is a specific pleasure you only get in this one. As of 2025 it is also the mainline game set in the most recent era in history, which makes it an odd duck on the timeline. On Steam it runs $35 (tax included).

The Accessibility score of 85 is for how much the rope launcher cuts out of the daily grind of getting around. Setting and Story at 80 reflects the split: London itself is gorgeously recreated, but the twins never get the screen time that II or Origins gives its leads. It lands low on this list, and it is still a stable, well-behaved game built on the lessons of Unity, which makes it a refuge for anyone who never warmed to the RPG era.

No. 10 Assassin’s Creed Unity: Revolutionary Paris, Four-Player Co-op, and the Launch Bugs That Sank Its Reputation

Assassin’s Creed Unity launched in Japan on November 20, 2014 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, published by Ubisoft. It is set in Paris during the French Revolution, and the protagonist is Arno Dorian, a young nobleman. It brought co-op to the series for the first time, letting up to four players run story missions together. The present-day thread was cut back to cutscenes, with no playable sections at all.

In the days after launch, players on multiple platforms hit frame rate collapses, crashes, and bugs that dropped them straight through the geometry. Ubisoft apologized, gave the downloadable content away for free, and stopped selling the season pass. Its stock fell 9.12 percent the following week. On the other side of the ledger, after the Notre-Dame fire in 2019 the company gave the PC version away free for a week and donated 500,000 euros toward the restoration. On Steam it runs $26 (tax included).

Accessibility at 72 accounts for both the memory of those launch bugs and parkour controls that still have a mind of their own. Setting and Story at 85 is for a Paris packed shoulder to shoulder with crowds, and for the fact that you can walk all the way inside Notre-Dame. The bugs were patched long ago, so if you play it today it should feel better than that number suggests.

Can all 10 Assassin’s Creed games be played on current hardware? Where to buy them and what they cost

① Games you can play through a subscription

② Games you can buy outright

③ Games playable as a remaster or remake

④ Games that are hard to get on current hardware

Steam list prices swing hard once a sale hits. The smart play is to pay full price only for RE:SYNCED and Shadows, and wait out a discount on everything older.

Summary: which Assassin’s Creed should you start with today?

The highest total score belongs to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag RE:SYNCED (365 points), released July 9, 2026 at $55 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Second is Shadows (362 points), out March 20, 2025, with the Switch 2 version following on December 2, 2025 at $47 and a player count of five million. Third-place Odyssey (355 points) and fourth-place Origins (350 points) are the two RPG-era entries, while fifth-place Valhalla (340 points) is the biggest of the bunch at one billion dollars in revenue. Sixth-place Mirage (336 points) scores a 92 for Accessibility, which makes it the first pick for anyone short on time. Seventh-place II (328 points) and eighth-place Brotherhood (325 points) both come in The Ezio Collection, and then it is Syndicate (321 points) at ninth and Unity (312 points) at tenth. All 10 are playable on current hardware as of October 2026.

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