PC indie darling Manor Lords hits over 2 million copies sold three weeks after huge launch on Steam, Game Pass
One of 2024’s most exciting indie game releases turned out to be an incredibly successful one, too.
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What you need to know
Manor Lords— the ambitious medieval city-builder created entirely by Slavic Magic solo developer Greg Styczeń over the course of seven years — finally launched on PC in Early Access last month, and seeing as the game was the most wishlisted title on Steam for some time, I wasn’t shocked to see itcatapult to the top of the platform with 170,000 concurrent playersat release. Whatdoessurprise me, though, is that the game has officially sold over two million copies across Steam, GOG, and the Microsoft Store just three weeks post-launch, which is an amazing milestone for an indie game made by one person.
Publisher Hooded Horse revealed the news in apress release, celebrating the game’s impressive success and sharing a statement from CEO Tim Bender: “It’s been wonderful to see so many players give Manor Lords a try,” he said. “We had some pretty optimistic expectations and even some wild hopes, but reaching two million copies on Manor Lords so quickly has exceeded even those.”
Something to keep in mind is that this statistic specifically refers to sales of the game,notthe total number of players that have tried it out since it launched. That amount is likely much higher, as Manor Lords is playable on Microsoft’s buffet-stylePC Game Passservice (and alsoXbox Game Pass Ultimate, by extension).
Notably, this announcement also comes a few days afterbeta testing for Manor Lords' first patch went live on Steam. The update aims to fix a large number of issues players have had with the launch build of the game, including the Baron claiming regions of the map too quickly, “clogged” Trading Posts, underwhelming archer damage, problems affecting Marketplace supply, overly punishing over/undersupply trading mechanics, and more.
-Manor Lords FAQ-How to make weapons-How to get Fuel-How to get food-Best Manor Lords upgrades
These were some of the only major problems I had with the game whenI reviewed itin the weeks leading up to its release date, so I’m glad to see that they’re being addressed quickly. The issues with Marketplace supply in particular can get pretty frustrating in large cities where you need lots of food and clothing variety to upgrade homes and keep your serfs happy, so I’m looking forward to fixes for those the most.
I didn’t have to deal with weak archers since the nerf to them was a last-minute decision at launch, but from what I’ve seen, theydoseem pretty useless compared to other units you canbuild an armywith. Hopefully they’ll be far more effective in battle once the update is pushed to the live game.
Overall, it’s awesome to see Manor Lords do so well thus far, and its future looks bright, too. According tothe game’s release date traileras well asan Xbox Wire blog post from Microsoft, the planned Xbox release isn’t too far off, with Microsoft stating that it’ll come to its consoles “shortly after” its PC launch in April. Additionally, the game is expected to remain in Early Access for the next year or so, during which time Greg Styczeń will continue to polish the game and add new features like a full diplomacy system.
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Sadly, the game’s launch sale that knocked its price down 25% to $29.99 (from $39.99) ended on May 10, butCDKeys actually has an even better deal you can take advantage ofto get a Steam key for the game for just $21.39. Of course, you can also play Manor Lords without buying it permanently if you’re a PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber.
Manor Lords |$39.99$21.39 at CDKeys (Steam)
Greg Styczeń’s highly anticipated city-builder Manor Lords is finally here, and it’s just as amazing as everyone was hoping it’d be. I’m not even a huge fan of the genre, but it’s absolutely hooked me with its addictive gameplay loops, and I’m confident you’re going to love it, too.
Also at:GOG|Microsoft Store
Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
