All Assassin's Creed Games in Order, by Release and Timeline

Lining up all Assassin's Creed games in order gets messy fast. Assassin's Creed has spent nearly two decades hopping between the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, the Golden Age of Piracy, ancient Egypt, and feudal Japan. Its release order jumps back and forth across more than 2,300 years of history. The Assassin's Creed chronological order and the release order barely line up at all.

We've put both on one page. Every main entry and every major spin-off below is listed in Assassin's Creed release order, each with its own section. The table also lists the story years, for anyone who wants to play the story as history happened. If one of these catches your eye, you'll find keys for most of them in our Assassin's Creed games collection.

Below, you'll find what each game plays like, who you control, and where it sits in the wider story.

1. Assassin's Creed (2007)

The one that started it all puts you in the boots of Desmond Miles, a bartender kidnapped by the Abstergo corporation. Abstergo straps him into the Animus, a machine that reads the memories of his ancestors stored in his DNA. Those memories belong to Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, an arrogant Assassin demoted after a botched mission in 1191, during the Third Crusade. To earn his rank back, Altaïr has to eliminate nine targets across Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, reporting to his mentor Al Mualim at the fortress of Masyaf between each hit.

Every core idea of the series comes from here: climbing anything, the Leap of Faith into a haystack, blending with crowds of scholars, synchronizing from viewpoints and the hidden blade. The structure hasn't aged well. Each target follows the same loop of eavesdropping, pickpocketing and interrogating before the kill, and the side content is thin. It's still worth a few evenings for the story alone, since the twist with the Apple of Eden sets up the rest of Desmond's story.

My Verdict: Start here if you want the full story from the very beginning. The structure is repetitive, but the Holy Land atmosphere and the ending still hold up.

2. Assassin's Creed II (2009)

Assassin's Creed II is where the series found its footing, and plenty of fans still call it the best Assassin's Creed game. You play Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a charming young Florentine noble whose father and brothers are hanged in 1476 in a conspiracy tied to the Templars. Ezio's revenge carries him through Florence, Tuscany, Forlì and Venice over more than two decades, with Leonardo da Vinci fixing up his gear and, at one point, building him a flying machine. The chain of villains leads to Rodrigo Borgia, the future Pope Alexander VI.

Ubisoft fixed almost every complaint about the first game. Missions vary, the cities are packed with tombs and secrets, and the villa at Monteriggioni gives you a home base to rebuild with the money you collect. Combat got dual hidden blades and weapon disarms, and Ezio can swim, which Altaïr couldn't. The ending's meeting with Minerva inside the Vatican vault is one of the most talked-about moments in the franchise and pulls Desmond's modern-day story into focus.

My Verdict: Assassin's Creed II is where most players should begin the classic era. Ezio's story, the Italian cities and the tighter mission design make it the entry most fans come back to.

3. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010)

Brotherhood picks up right where AC II ends. In January 1500, Cesare Borgia attacks Monteriggioni, takes the Apple of Eden and leaves Ezio in the ruins, so the action moves to Rome, where the Borgia family runs the city. Almost the whole game takes place in one large map, and your job is to take Rome back district by district. You burn down Borgia towers to push their control back, then buy and renovate shops, banks and landmarks to pull in more income.

The game is named after its best feature, your own Brotherhood of Assassins. You rescue citizens from the guards, recruit them as apprentice Assassins, and send them on contracts across Europe to level them up. In a fight, one button calls them in from the rooftops to finish a target for you. It's also the first entry with online multiplayer, a clever hide-and-seek mode where every player hunts a target and is hunted at the same time. Many players rank Brotherhood as the most polished of the Ezio games.

My Verdict: Brotherhood is the most complete of the classic games. Recruiting and commanding your own Assassins still feels great, and Rome is packed with things to do.

4. Assassin's Creed Revelations (2011)

Revelations closes the Ezio trilogy. An older, grayer Ezio travels to Masyaf in 1511 looking for Altaïr's library and finds it sealed behind five keys. Those keys are hidden in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and each one plays a memory from Altaïr's later life. That gives you a wrap-up for both classic heroes in one game, with Desmond stuck in a coma on the Animus island and trying to piece his own mind together.

Mechanically, Revelations adds the hookblade, which lets Ezio zip along ziplines and climb faster, and a bomb crafting system with hundreds of combinations. The Den Defense mode, a tower-defense minigame, is the one feature nearly everyone skips. If you want to play all three Ezio games back to back, the Ezio Trilogy bundles AC II, Brotherhood and Revelations in one package.

My Verdict: Revelations is worth playing for the send-off it gives both Ezio and Altaïr. Play it right after Brotherhood, since the payoff depends on knowing both men.

5. Assassin's Creed III (2012)

Assassin's Creed III jumps to the American Revolution. The opening hours put you in control of Haytham Kenway, a charming Englishman who builds a network of allies in Boston. The reveal of who Haytham works for is still one of the best twists in the series. The story then follows his son Ratonhnhaké:ton, known as Connor, a Mohawk boy whose village burns in 1760. As an adult, Connor joins the Assassins and gets pulled into Boston, New York and the war for independence, crossing paths with George Washington and Charles Lee.

Tree climbing across the big wilderness areas between the cities, hunting and a homestead full of settlers you recruit all debuted here. The biggest addition was naval combat, which later became the heart of Black Flag. AC III also wraps up Desmond Miles' story in 2012, which ends the first modern-day arc of the franchise. The 2019 Assassin's Creed III Remastered release refreshed the visuals and came bundled with Liberation Remastered.

My Verdict: Assassin's Creed III has a slow start, but Haytham's twist and the naval missions make it worth the time. It's also where Desmond's arc ends, so skip it only if the modern-day story means nothing to you.

6. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (2012)

Liberation launched on the same day as AC III, first as a PlayStation Vita exclusive. You play Aveline de Grandpré, the daughter of a French merchant and an enslaved African woman. Between 1765 and 1777, she fights slavery and a Templar plot in New Orleans and the bayou around it, and even travels to Chichén Itzá in Mexico. It's the first game in the series with a female lead, and a short cameo from Connor links it to AC III.

Aveline's persona system sets the game apart. She can switch between three identities: the Lady, who charms guards and bribes her way in but can't climb; the Slave, who blends with workers; and the Assassin, who fights and free-runs but draws attention. It's a smaller game than the mainline titles, but it holds up. An HD version reached consoles and PC in 2014, and today the simplest way to play it is through Assassin's Creed III Remastered.

My Verdict: Liberation is a short side story best played in its remastered form. The persona system gives it a stealth flavor none of the big games copied.

7. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)

Black Flag is the pirate game, and many fans consider it the best Assassin's Creed game ever made. You play Edward Kenway, Haytham's father and Connor's grandfather, a Welsh sailor who steals an Assassin's identity for easy money and ends up tangled in the war between the Assassins and the Templars. The story runs from 1715 to 1722 across Havana, Nassau and Kingston, and you share the seas with Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Mary Read and Anne Bonny.

Most of your time goes to the Jackdaw, Edward's ship. Sailing is fast and fun, boarding enemy ships is loud and messy, and the open Caribbean is dotted with islands, forts, shipwrecks, underwater diving spots and whales to harpoon. Your crew sings sea shanties as you sail, and you add new ones by chasing loose music sheets through the towns. The modern-day side casts you as an Abstergo Entertainment employee in first person. The Freedom Cry DLC follows Edward's quartermaster Adéwalé in Saint-Domingue, and Ubisoft later released it as a standalone game in 2014.

My Verdict: Black Flag is the easiest Assassin's Creed game to recommend to anyone. If you love pirates, sailing or open seas full of side content, start here or with the remake.

8. Assassin's Creed Unity (2014)

Unity was the first entry built only for PS4, Xbox One and PC, and its Paris during the French Revolution is still one of the best-looking cities the series has made. You play Arno Dorian, whose adoptive father is murdered in 1789. His search for the killer pulls him into the Assassins, even as he falls for Élise de la Serre, the daughter of a Templar Grand Master. The crowds are huge, many buildings have interiors you can walk into, and you can climb every inch of Notre-Dame.

Parkour got a new controlled ascent and descent system, and the black box assassination missions let you pick your own route into a target, from disguises to distractions to secret entrances. Unity also added four-player co-op missions. The game launched with serious bugs, including a notorious facial glitch, and its reputation took years to recover. Patches fixed most of it, and Ubisoft confirmed a 60 FPS patch for Unity on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in March 2026.

My Verdict: Parkour fans and anyone who loves a dense, handcrafted city get the most out of Unity. Play the patched version and the launch problems are mostly a memory.

9. Assassin's Creed Rogue (2014)

Rogue launched the same day as Unity, on PS3 and Xbox 360, and it's the one entry built around playing a Templar. Shay Patrick Cormac is an Irish-American Assassin who breaks with the Brotherhood after a mission ends in disaster and joins the Templars during the Seven Years' War. From there you hunt your old friends across the North Atlantic, the River Valley and New York, and they hunt you back, hiding in bushes and on rooftops.

The game plays like a colder Black Flag, with icebergs, frozen seas and a ship called the Morrigan that can ram through ice floes. Shay's air rifle and grenade launcher give him a very different kit from any Assassin. Rogue also bridges AC III and Unity, and its final mission ties straight into Unity's opening. A Rogue Remastered release followed in 2018, and on Switch you can get both Black Flag and Rogue in the Rebel Collection.

My Verdict: Rogue is a short, fun follow-up for anyone who finished Black Flag and wants more sailing. Shay's switch to the Templars also fills in the gaps between AC III and Unity.

10. Assassin's Creed Chronicles (2015–2016)

Assassin's Creed Chronicles is a trilogy of 2.5D side-scrolling stealth games, each set in a different country and century. China came first in April 2015 and follows Shao Jun, a former concubine trained by Ezio. In 1526, she hunts the Templars who wiped out the Chinese Brotherhood. India (January 2016) casts you as Arbaaz Mir in the Sikh Empire of 1841. Russia (February 2016) follows Nikolai Orelov in 1918, right after the Bolshevik Revolution, as he tries to protect the young Anastasia Romanov.

Each game has its own art style, from China's ink-painting look to Russia's red, black and white palette. The gameplay is pure stealth: you slip between hiding spots, time guard patrols, and move across foreground and background layers to stay out of sight. All three are short enough to finish in a weekend each, and they fill in parts of the lore the big games never touch. Assassin's Creed Chronicles keys for China and India are available on their own if you want to pick one.

My Verdict: The Chronicles trilogy is a good palate cleanser between the big open-world games. Start with China, which has the strongest link to the main series through Ezio.

11. Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015)

Syndicate moves to Victorian London in 1868, at the height of the Industrial Revolution. You play the twins Jacob and Evie Frye, and you can switch between them freely in the open world. Jacob is a brawler who wants to build a street gang, the Rooks, and take the city from the Templar Grand Master Crawford Starrick. Evie is the stealthier twin and cares more about finding a Piece of Eden hidden somewhere in London. Along the way you meet Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Queen Victoria.

The rope launcher changed how the series moves, letting you zip up buildings and across wide streets in seconds. Horse-drawn carriage chases and gang wars for each borough fill the map, and the Jack the Ripper DLC adds a darker story set 20 years later. Syndicate was the last yearly entry. Ubisoft skipped a mainline release in 2016 and came back with a very different kind of game.

My Verdict: Syndicate is the most lighthearted entry of the classic era, carried by the Frye twins and the rope launcher. Its lighter tone and quick traversal make it an easy pick before the RPG years.

12. Assassin's Creed Origins (2017)

Origins reinvented the series as an open-world action RPG. It takes place in Ptolemaic Egypt from 49 to 44 BCE and follows Bayek of Siwa, a Medjay whose son dies at the hands of a masked group called the Order of the Ancients. With his wife Aya, Bayek hunts the members one by one, crossing paths with Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. Their fight leads to the founding of the Hidden Ones, the group that would one day become the Assassin Brotherhood.

Combat now uses hitboxes and an adrenaline-fueled Overpower attack, enemies have levels, and gear comes in rarities with its own stats. The map covers Alexandria, Memphis, the Giza pyramids and huge stretches of desert, and Bayek's eagle Senu replaces Eagle Vision as your scouting tool. Origins also introduced the Discovery Tour, a combat-free mode for touring ancient Egypt as a museum. The Curse of the Pharaohs expansion sends Bayek into the afterlife.

My Verdict: Origins is the best entry point into the RPG era. Egypt is one of the most memorable open worlds in the series, and Bayek's story gives the lore a proper beginning.

13. Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018)

Odyssey is the earliest game in the Assassin's Creed chronological order, set in ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War, 431 to 422 BCE. You choose between Kassandra and Alexios, a Spartan mercenary descended from King Leonidas, and the story follows them as they hunt the Cult of Kosmos, which pulls the strings of both Athens and Sparta. There are no Assassins yet, so you won't find a hidden blade here; you fight with the Spear of Leonidas.

No other entry leans this hard into RPG territory. You pick dialogue options, romance characters, make choices that change the ending, and fight in large conquest battles between Athens and Sparta. Your ship, the Adrestia, brings back Black Flag's naval combat, and a mercenary system sends bounty hunters after you when you cause trouble. The main story plus the Legacy of the First Blade and Fate of Atlantis expansions can easily run past 100 hours.

My Verdict: Odyssey is the biggest RPG the series has made, packed with choices and romance options. If you came for hidden-blade stealth, it may feel like a different series.

14. Assassin's Creed Valhalla (2020)

Valhalla follows Eivor, a Viking raider of the Raven Clan (playable as male or female), who leaves Norway with the clan and sails to England. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are split, and Eivor forges alliances across the country to give the clan a new home. That puts you in the middle of the wars against Alfred the Great, and in touch with the Hidden Ones through Basim and Hytham.

Your settlement, Ravensthorpe, is the center of the game. You raid monasteries for supplies, then use them to build a barracks, a smithy and a hall that tie into story missions. Combat mixes axes, shields and dual wielding, with river raids, flyting rap battles and the dice game Orlog on the side. Visions of Asgard and Jotunheim add a mythological layer, and the Dawn of Ragnarök expansion puts you in Odin's shoes. Assassin's Creed Valhalla keys come in several editions, from the base game to the Complete Edition with every expansion.

My Verdict: Valhalla suits players who like building up a settlement and raiding with a crew. It's long, so stick to the main story arcs if the side content starts to drag.

15. Assassin's Creed Mirage (2023)

Mirage is a deliberate return to the stealth roots of the series. It's set in Baghdad in 861, during the Islamic Golden Age, and follows Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief who joins the Hidden Ones under his mentor Roshan. Mirage is a prequel to his role in Valhalla, so it explains how Basim became the man Eivor meets. The story is focused and short, usually around 15 to 20 hours.

The design is closer to the Ezio games than to Origins. Baghdad is one dense city, and you slip through crowds, hide on rooftops and use tools such as throwing knives and noisemakers. Black box assassinations return, and the Assassin's Focus ability lets Basim chain several kills in one move. Mirage came to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPads in June 2024, and the free Valley of Memory expansion arrived in November 2025, sending Basim to AlUla to learn more about his father. Assassin's Creed Mirage keys are available on PC and Xbox.

My Verdict: If you miss the old formula, Mirage gives you a focused stealth game in the Ezio mold. It also gives Basim's story in Valhalla far more weight.

16. Assassin's Creed Shadows (2025)

Shadows finally took the series to feudal Japan, a setting fans asked about for years. It's set in 1579 during the late Sengoku period and gives you two protagonists. Fujibayashi Naoe is a shinobi from Iga who climbs, sneaks and uses a grappling hook. Yasuke is the African samurai who served Oda Nobunaga, a heavy fighter who can break through doors and armor. You can switch between them in the open world, and many missions can be solved either way.

The map changes with dynamic seasons, so winter ice or summer grass changes how you sneak through a castle. You rebuild a hideout, recruit allies and hunt down a group of masked targets. The Claws of Awaji expansion (September 2025) added around ten hours of story, and a Nintendo Switch 2 version followed in December 2025. Ubisoft moved Shadows into its final phase of support in 2026, with a June update adding one last story quest. You can pick up Assassin's Creed Shadows keys here too, the Deluxe Edition included.

My Verdict: Shadows is the best mix of old and new the series has made so far, with Naoe for stealth and Yasuke for open fights. Pick it if you want both play styles in one modern game.

17. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced (2026)

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is a full remake of the 2013 pirate game, built in the latest version of Ubisoft's Anvil engine for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Edward Kenway's story and the Caribbean setting are the same, but the modern-day Abstergo sequences are gone. In their place, you get new scenarios exploring what-if versions of Edward's life, and there are new scenes written by original lead writer Darby McDevitt, with Matt Ryan returning as Edward. Anne Bonny, Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet all got bigger roles, but Ubisoft left the Freedom Cry DLC out.

Ubisoft's launch rundown lists the gameplay changes. You get ray-traced lighting, a 60 FPS mode on console, crouching and diving anywhere and an observe mode for stealth. Combat now runs on parries, and ships gain secondary weapons plus new officers with their own abilities. Ten new sea shanties join the classics. It hit the highest concurrent Steam player count in series history, and reviews were positive, with some critics preferring the original's simpler flow. If you've never played Black Flag, this is now the easiest way in.

My Verdict: Black Flag Resynced is the best way to play Black Flag in 2026. Returning players lose the modern-day story and Freedom Cry, so keep the original if those matter to you.

FAQs About Assassin’s Creed Games

Final Words

The release order and the timeline tell two different stories about Assassin's Creed. Release order shows a series that started as a tight stealth game, grew into a sailing and city-building sandbox, and then turned into a 100-hour RPG before pulling back again. The timeline shows the lore Ubisoft built underneath all of it, from the Spartan spear in ancient Greece to a hidden blade in Russia after the 1917 revolution.

Short on time? Pick one from each era. Take Assassin's Creed II for the classic structure, Black Flag or its remake for the open sea, and Origins for the RPG shift. After those three, you'll know which style you prefer, and the rest of the list sorts itself out.

As for what comes next, Hexe promises something darker and more focused, Invictus is a new take on multiplayer, and the success of Black Flag Resynced suggests more remakes could follow. Ubisoft hasn't committed to dates for any of it, so the 17 games above are plenty to keep you busy until then.

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