Now that it’s close to 20 years since the original Assassin’s Creed was released, it’s getting easy to forget that the whole concept of the user diving into memories of the pastwas kept secret. Or, it was meant to until Kristen Bell spilled the beans weeks before the launch in an interview. Regardless, the series has gone on to become one of the biggest franchises in games, with a new installment coming out annually up until Origins broke the mold. For whatever reason, games can’t just stick to a basic, understandable numbering convention for long-running series. In the case of Assassin’s Creed, this makes it incredibly convoluted to trackwhat games fit where in the timeline.
There are two ways to follow Assassin’s Creed. you may go in release order, which mostly follows the future timeline chronologically, or in chronological order of the historical settings you visit. Whichever one you think is best, I think we can all agree that you’ll need a history degree to put the games in the right order. If you’re ready to don the Assassin’s hood, climb some towers, and bloody your hidden blade, here is how you can play the entire Assassin’s Creed franchise in order, chronologically or by release.
I’m not going to include any of the spin-off games in this list that don’t relate to the current 13 mainline titles either historically or in the future storyline. I will also not be spoiling any plot details from any of the games.
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1Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
431 to 422 BC
assassin’s creed odyssey
There technically could be settings earlier in history a future Assassin’s Creed could take place in, but I think Odyssey is about as far back as the series could go and still be mechanically interesting. This time you play as either Kassandra or Alexios in Ancient Greece before the assassins had even formed.
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2Assassin’s Creed Origins
49 to 44 BC
Assassin’s Creed Origins
Origins was only the earliest game in the franchise for one year before its name became mostly redundant. While it isn’t the first game chronologically anymore, the name does still fit in how it is the origin point of the assassin order in Ancient Egypt by our main character Bayek.
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3Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
The next game makes a big leap forward in time to 861 AD in Baghdad. It’s an interesting entry for showing the initiation of Basim into the assassins (or Hidden Ones) before he shows up in a different game. It’s otherwise a smaller and less impactful game on the larger story.
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4Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
872 to 878 AD
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Currently the largest AC game of the bunch, Valhalla is an epic focusing on the Viking escapades of Eivor in England between 872 and 878 AD. Eivor isn’t an assassin here, despite having all the skills of one, but Basim makes an appearance here to at least have one true Hidden One in the game.
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5Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed
The game that started it all picked the Third Crusade as its backdrop for our first adventure. We follow Altair’s fall and rise through the assassin’s order by dispatching key Templar figures. This is also the beginning of Desmond’s story in the modern age.
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6Assassin’s Creed 2
1476 to 1499 AD
Assassin’s Creed 2
After the Crusades, our next stop on this historical tour is the Italian Renaissance with Ezio. This game covers the most amount of time of any individual entry as we follow Ezio’s evolution from a young man to a veteran assassin.
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7Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
1499 to 1507 AD
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
The first direct sequel, both in terms of character and time, is Brotherhood. Ezio’s story begins to take a backseat to the events and buildup of Desmond’s in this installment.
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8Assassin’s Creed Revelations
1511 to 1512 AD
Assassin’s Creed Revelations
To close out the Ezio trilogy, Revelations takes him out of Italy and over to Constantinople to learn more about the origins of the Hidden Ones. This entry gives us brief segments playing as Altair once again, so technically it also fits before AC 1, but that’s splitting hairs.
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9Assassin’s Creed Shadows
1579 to unknown
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Over on the other side of the world, Shadows finally gives fans what they’ve been asking for since the first game: an ancient Japanese setting. Specifically, Shadows will be set during the final years of the Sengoku period and feature the first time a historical figure will be a playable character in Yasuke alongside a new character, Naoe.
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10Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
1715 to 1722 AD
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Yup, don’t even bother paying attention to the numbers if you’re going chronologically, because AC 4 does indeed come before 3. Another unique setting to test out, AC 4 puts you in the boots of the up-and-coming pirate, Edward Kenway, in the Golden Age of Piracy. Once again, Edward is another protagonist who isn’t technically an assassin but is roped into their conflicts by luck, or more specifically, bad luck.
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