Steam's most-anticipated city builder hits 2 million wishlists - after the solo dev's girlfriend predicted they'd be lucky to hit 7,000
Jan. 18, 2024Manor Lords is set to be a massive hit
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The solo developer of the most anticipated city builder on Steam says his girlfriend expected him to get around 7,000 wishlists - but now he’s crossed two million.
Manor Lordsis a medieval city builder that combines the management aspects of games like Banished and Going Medieval with combat and diplomacy systems that look more like something out of Mount & Blade than Sim City. Manor Lords also happens to be one of the most-anticipated games on Steam, with the second-most wishlists on the entire platform, behind onlyHades 2, and several spots above the next biggest city builder on the charts,Frostpunk 2.
Styczeń had slightly more optimism than that, putting his own personal estimate at 14,000 wishlists. “Suffice to say,” he says, “I did not expect the game to pick up so much interest and hit over two million. I hope this is encouraging for other devs who struggle to get their games out there. I had no idea how the game would be received or if I’d be bad at marketing, but luckily I wasn’t discouraged and kept going.”
Manor Lords releases into early access on PC via Steam, GOG, and Game Pass’s Game Preview program on April 26, whereupon Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong will retain their battle for the top spot.
Does a new challenger await for our list of thebest city building games?
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I’m GamesRadar’s news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I’ve run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam’s latest indie hit.
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