173k players simultaneously played Manor Lords

Most wishlisted upcoming game on Steam, Manor Lords, was released in Early Access last week, April 26th. It has already attracted a large number of players in just the first few hours, so let's take a closer look at some numbers.

It is a strategy title developed by Polish solo developer Greg Styczeń and published under his studio name, Slavic Magic. The game is currently available on Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG and PC Game Pass platforms. At its core, Manor Lords is a city-builder game set in Europe during the 14th century, with a special emphasis on detail and simulation. It allows players to develop their settlements by managing resources and keep the citizens satisfied, while forming an army to conquer other territories.

At the moment, Manor Lords has 88.73% positive user reviews out of a total of 20,149, of which 2270 are negative. Also, Manor Lords has peaked at 173,178 concurrent players according to data from SteamDB. When it comes to new games that have recently been released, Manor Lords comes out on top, while being the eighth most played game on Steam overall in the last 24 hours, with CS2 still in first place.

Manor Lords has been in development for seven years and with the launch in Early Access, that journey will continue. Despite the high interest, Styczeń has already warned players not to expect Manor Lords as a replacement for other series, for example, Total War or fast-paced RTS games like Age of Empires, as its gameplay is different from those titles. He also pointed out that many elements of the game still need various improvements.

The game is priced at €29.99, which is relatively high, especially considering that without the discount, it would cost €39.99, making it quite steep for an Early Access version. Clearly, the pricing decision for this game was influenced by the immense interest from players. While the hype is justified due to its quality and innovation, it's difficult to overlook the fact that it currently offers only ten hours of gameplay with limited content and unfinished elements.