The Hitman series turns 20 this month, boasts 70 million lifetime players

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Adding up to a lot of assassinations.

Hitman 3 Agent 47 in disguise
(Image credit: IO Interactive)

November 21 is a big day for IO Interactive, as it marks the release date of Hitman: Codename 47, all the way back in 2000. By now, the Hitman series is seven games strong, with the eighth, Hitman 3, releasing in January 2021.

Reason enough for IO Interactive to start the celebrations early and reveal in a recent blog post that by now, the franchise has amassed a cool 70 million players over its 20-year run. In 2016, IO Interactive started its World of Assassination trilogy with Hitman (2016), giving the series a bit of a soft reboot and introducing an episodic release format and a sandbox setting. Hitman 2 (2018) refined the sandbox concept with its incredible level design, giving you a myriad of ways of approaching and ultimately offing targets.

While there's a lot to love about Hitman's reincarnation, initial releases always felt a little bare-bones, but IO Interactive did a great job adding new levels, including iconic locations every wannabe agent has dreamed of breaking into at some point, such as a high security bank vault. While the old school trilogy will always stand out for a bigger focus on plot and the advances it brought to the stealth genre as a whole, all Hitman games have their charms—yes, even Hitman Absolution. In case you're looking to be convinced, Andy made a spectacular case for Hitman 2 last year. Look, it has a homing briefcase, the best case of bug turned feature in years.