Cities Skylines 2 will one day be the definitive building and management sim – of this, I am confident. Technical problems, some unusual pathfinding AI, and problems with traffic and roads might have impacted its first couple of months, but the groundwork is there for CS2, and with patches, DLC, and mods, it will eventually rule the entire genre. Currently, however, the Colossal Order and Paradox sequel is going through an awkward patch, something that is reflected in its Steam player count. Over on Valve’s platform, Cities Skylines 2 now has fewer players than the original Cities Skylines from 2015.
Cities Skylines 2 mods will make a big difference, especially when the new creation and distribution tools, and the Cities Skylines 2 editor, are released by Colossal Order. Likewise, the city building game is poised for long-term gains. DLC, patches, fixes, and more will gradually transform Cities Skylines 2 into a better game. It’s unfortunate that the current problems exist, but it feels like a dawning reality of modern game-making, especially on PC – games come out, but they’re not fully fledged and at their best until months after release. Right now, it seems players prefer the original CS1 over this year’s sequel.
As of the time of writing, according to SteamDB, Cities Skylines 1 has 10,011 players, versus 9,263 for Cities Skylines 2. Over on Steam Charts, the figures are slightly different, but the story is the same – 9,893 people are playing CS1, as opposed to 8,887 on Cities Skylines 2.
In the past 24 hours, according to SteamDB, Cities 1 has also seen a marginally bigger peak player count than Cities 2: 14,762 people have concurrently played Cities 1 on Steam during the past day, while Cities 2 is slightly beneath that at 14,738. Steam Charts tells it differently – here, Cities 2’s 24-hour peak is slightly higher at 14,738, versus 14,718 for Cities 1.
Colossal Order recently announced that a large-scale patch for CS2 may arrive before the end of 2023. The developer also confirmed that the Cities Skylines 2 editor would land in early 2024, and has opened early access sign ups for mod and asset creators.
Get a pre-emptive look at all the Cities Skylines 2 DLC on the way, or maybe try some of the other best management games available on PC.
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