ActionAdventure
Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™
Give it 3 hours
Gets good by 3h almost every game dips in hours 2–3
Fully opens up by 20h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending 34% of players who started
Started playing 23% of owners
Steam reviews 88% positive of 78,724
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (48%); after 20h it's 1 in 15 (7%).
- Fully opens up by hour 20.
- 34% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Heroes Aren't Born” (Complete memory sequence 1) and “Good While It Lasted” (Complete memory sequence 2): from 100% to 82% of starters.
- Only 23% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 78,991 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 300 reviews: 37.7h for positive, 18.1h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (22.6% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Heroes Aren't Born Complete memory sequence 1. 100%
- Good While It Lasted Complete memory sequence 2. Most players quit here 82% −18
- A Pirate's Life For Me Complete memory sequence 3. 70% −12
- No Apologies Complete memory sequence 4. 63% −7
- Death Of A Salesman Complete memory sequence 5. 56% −7
- Mixing Up The Medicines Complete memory sequence 6. 50% −6
- The Hammer Falls Complete memory sequence 7. 48% −2
- Adrift Complete memory sequence 8. 45% −3
- A New Hope Complete memory sequence 9. 43% −2
- My Elusive Fortune Complete memory sequence 10. 40% −3
- Been Down So Long... Complete memory sequence 11. 39% −1
- Just Like Starting Over Complete memory sequence 12. 35% −3
- Saw That One Coming... Complete memory sequence 13. 34% −1
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (60)
story milestone ending side
- Heroes Aren't Born Complete memory sequence 1. 100%
- Good While It Lasted Complete memory sequence 2. 82%
- All Aboard! Board a ship without losing any crew members. 72%
- A Pirate's Life For Me Complete memory sequence 3. 70%
- Routine Hacking Complete present day mission 2. 69%
- Employee Of The Month Complete 25 Abstergo challenges. 66%
- No Apologies Complete memory sequence 4. 63%
- Business And Pleasure Earn 50,000 reales. 62%
- Owned Complete every activity in a single location. 60%
- Excavator Find a buried treasure. 60%
- Death Of A Salesman Complete memory sequence 5. 56%
- Mer-man Swim a total of 1 nmi. 56%
- Silence, Fool! Kill a guard ringing a bell. 50%
- Mixing Up The Medicines Complete memory sequence 6. 50%
- Getting Weird Around Here Complete present day mission 3. 50%
- Thug Life Plunder 30 ships. 50%
- The Hammer Falls Complete memory sequence 7. 48%
- Adrift Complete memory sequence 8. 45%
- A New Hope Complete memory sequence 9. 43%
- Help A Brother Out Complete a Templar Hunt sequence. 42%
- My Elusive Fortune Complete memory sequence 10. 40%
- Bunker Buddies Complete present day mission 4. 40%
- Been Down So Long... Complete memory sequence 11. 39%
- Just Like Starting Over Complete memory sequence 12. 35%
- It's All Good Complete present day mission 5. 35%
- Killer Killer Harpoon a killer whale. 35%
- Wild West Indies Kill 4 enemies in a row using multi-pistols. 35%
- Saw That One Coming... Complete memory sequence 13. 34%
- Sharing Is Caring Share each type of discovery with friends once. 31%
- King Of The Castle Capture all forts. 30%
- FTFY Fully upgrade your hideout. 24%
- Cannon fodder Recruit 500 crew members. 22%
- Vault Raider Unlock the secret door in Tulum. 20%
- Roped In Perform 5 air assassinations from a swinging rope. 20%
- Sea Legs Complete all naval contracts. 19%
- Seven Deadly Seas Explore all underwater shipwrecks. 19%
- Barfly Unlock all taverns. 17%
- Redingote Up! Craft the Hunter outfit. 16%
- Ghost In The Machine Hack 15 computers in Abstergo Entertainment. 16%
- Cartographer Visit every location of the game. 14%
- Hungover Wake up in a haystack. 14%
- Devil Of The Caribbean Defeat all 4 legendary ships. 13%
- Destroyer Fully upgrade the Jackdaw. 12%
- Liberation Day Free your first slave. 12%
- His Word Was “Perhaps” Freedom Cry - Complete all missions 5.8%
- By The Book Complete 100% of all main mission constraints. 4.9%
- Firepower Kill 5 guards at once with a blunderbuss. 4.9%
- Seeds of independence Liberate 500 slaves. 4.0%
- Siren Song Rescue pirate hostages by distracting enemies with "dancers." 3.1%
- His Own Medicine Disarm the Gouverneur and kill him with the branding iron. 2.7%
- His Full Attention Freedom Cry - Achieve 100% synchronization 2.7%
- Personal Bag Of Tricks Finish a game session with an ability set that you customized in Multiplayer. 1.8%
- Master Of The Caribbean Complete the Discovery Mode of Wolfpack in Multiplayer. 1.3%
- Committed To The Cause Reach level 55 in Multiplayer. 0.9%
- Lab Technician Play and complete a game session of Game Lab in the Multiplayer Public playlist. 0.9%
- Sacred Land Playing as The Jaguar, be the highest scoring player of a Domination game session. 0.9%
- Queen Anne’s Revenge Playing as Blackbeard, perform an acrobatic kill and a gun kill in less than 10 seconds. 0.9%
- Elevator to the Gallows Kill a player using a lift that has been trapped with Booby Trap. 0.9%
- All Rounder Play on every game mode, and use every ability and ranged weapon once in Multiplayer. 0.4%
- Preemptive Strike Playing as The Orchid, block 10 abilities from opponents with Sabotage. 0.4%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.