Highly anticipated: Steam’s latest Early Access hit is a medieval-themed simulation game combining city building and battlefield tactics. Launching alongside Steam’s Farming Fest sales event, Manor Lords experienced one of the biggest launches for a strategy game in the platform’s history.
Publisher Hooded Horse recently confirmed that Manor Lords sold over 1 million copies and reached a peak concurrent player count of 170,000 on its first day on Steam Early Access. The latter number sets a new record for city builders on Steam.
The medieval lord simulator from Hooded Horse and developer Slavic Magic is currently Steam’s top-selling game. As of publication, the title is number 7 among the top 10 most-played games, just behind Apex Legends and ahead of Stardew Valley. Among strategy games, Manor Lords already ranks among the storefront’s most popular less than a week after launch.
Its day-one player count edges out the all-time peaks of juggernauts such as Crusader Kings II, Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, Company of Heroes 2, and Total War: Warhammer III. According to Steamdb, only the similarly medieval-themed simulator Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord eclipses it. However, its numbers may be higher since Steam doesn’t chart counts from other outlets like the Epic Games Store, GOG, and Xbox Game Pass.
Manor Lords incorporates historical realism while tasking players to build a medieval European town, gather resources, manage the surrounding environment, establish trade, and command large-scale real-time battles. Critics compare the combat system to the popular Total War series.
Slavic Magic expects to keep the game in Early Access for a year, but all of the content that the store page describes is available now. The Early Access period is primarily for polishing, but the developer might add content or features based on player feedback.
Although Manor Lords features realistic Unreal Engine 4 graphics, its system requirements are reasonable. It recommends a GeForce GTX 1060 or a Radeon RX 580 and only requires 15 GB of storage space.
Manor Lords is $29.99 with a 25 percent discount as part of Valve’s ongoing sale promoting farming simulation games until May 6. After that, it goes up by $10 to $39.99. Other sale highlights include Stardew Valley for $9.89, Farming Simulator 22 for $20.99, and Lightyear Frontier for $19.99.