The Cities Skylines 2 download size is 12 times bigger than the original Cities Skylines 1, as Paradox confirms that the new city builder will not be available to preload. Paradox has previously discussed Cities Skylines 2’s performance, saying that the new game from Colossal Order has not reached internal targets, but will still be released on its original, intended date. The publisher behind Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis also outlines a new platform for Cities Skylines 2 mods and how they will be created and distributed among players.
With the Cities Skylines 2 release date almost upon us, Paradox shares the full Cities Skylines 2 download size, explaining that the city building game will be “about 50 GB at release.” CS1 meanwhile, according to official system requirements, needs 4 GB of free space. Based on official announcements, this makes the Cities Skylines 2 download size 12.5 times larger than its predecessor, and all of the upcoming Cities Skylines 2 DLC will likely add to the game’s size on your hard drive.
In some cases, the download size for the original Cities Skylines can vary, as the game will be compressed to fit onto hard drives with a smaller amount of available space. Some players also report the size can increase to around 5 GB to accommodate patches and updates. The Windows 10 edition of Cities Skylines, available on Game Pass, is 16.6 GB – still three times smaller than the stated size of Cities Skylines 2.
Paradox also says that “no, we will not be able to offer pre-load,” in regards to Cities Skylines 2, meaning you will need to wait until the release date to begin downloading the management game. In regards to Cities Skylines 2 mods, Paradox is creating a new platform for their creation and distribution and insists that there will never be any paid mods.
“We’ve been planning and working on the Paradox Mods platform for Cities Skylines 2 from the very beginning of the development of the game and will continue after its release,” Paradox says. “The version made for Cities Skylines 1 was made so that a few hand-selected assets could be used on Xbox, and the idea for Cities Skylines 2 is much grander.
“We want to make the creation, uploading, sharing, and downloading experience as smooth as possible for a community that enjoys modding as much as you do. We will have full freedom to make any changes, improve any feature, and take any suggestions and make them into reality, so when you get your hands on the platform, we will be listening eagerly to all your voices.”
If any mods that you have installed receive updates, these updates will be automatically downloaded. Paradox says it will moderate Cities Skylines 2 mods, and that performance and download speed could be affected depending on how many mods a player is using.
“As always, performance (download speed) all depends on how many mods the player is running and their size,” Paradox says. “If a user has a significant amount of mods and a large portion has received updates when the game is started, it might take some time for those to download. We are working on optimizing this process to allow for, for example, differential updates (basically meaning that only the new/updated part of the mod will actually be downloaded) and also being able to sync more than one mod at a time (aka parallelized sync).”
Paradox previously stated that Cities Skylines 2 has failed to reach the internal targets the publisher set for performance, but that it will still release the game on schedule.
Check out the enormous new Cities Skylines 2 maps so you can start planning your dream build right now, and see how Cities Skylines 2 mods will function now that Paradox has dropped Steam Workshop support. You also need to see the new Cities Skylines 2 system requirements, which have been revised by Paradox.