Cities Skylines 2 is definitely going through a difficult ordeal. After a catastrophic launch, the figures are not good and are even a little painful to see. It’s too bad.
In the world of city-building games, Cities Skylines 2, developed by Colossal Order and Paradox, faces a surprising challenge: the game currently has fewer players on Steam than its 2015 predecessor, Cities Skylines.
Cities Skylines 2: the launch disaster still in people’s minds
Currently, Cities Skylines 2, developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox, is going through a delicate period, as evidenced by the number of players on Steam. According to data, the number of active players on Cities Skylines 2 is lower than its predecessor, Cities Skylines, released in 2015.
Obviously, mods for the management game will play a crucial role in the future. Particularly with the new creation and distribution tools, as well as the CS2 editor, provided by Colossal Order. Additionally, thanks to DLC, patches, and continued improvements, the city builder is well on its way to surpassing its predecessor in the long run. But at the moment, this is not the case.
The current issues are unfortunate, but they seem to be part of the reality of modern game development, especially on PC, where games don’t reveal their full potential until months after release. Right now, players seem to prefer the original CS1 over the sequel released this year. Thus, according to SteamDB, Cities Skylines 1 currently has 10,011 players compared to 9,263 for Cities Skylines 2. Steam Charts presents slightly different figures but the result is the same: 9893 people play CS1 compared to 8887 in CS2.
Figures that are sad
Over the past 24 hours, Cities 1 even recorded a slightly higher player peak than Cities 2: 14,762 players for Cities 1 compared to 14,738 for Cities 2, according to SteamDB. Steam Charts, however, indicates that CS2’s 24-hour peak is slightly higher, with 14,738 players compared to Cities 1’s 14,718.
Colossal Order recently announced that a major update for CS2 could arrive before the end of 2023. The developer also confirmed that the Cities Skylines 2 editor would be available in early 2024, and opened registration for mod and asset creators.
On consoles, the game is still planned but not before the second quarter of 2024. By the time everything gets back to normal on PC.