The Game Census
Cities: Skylines II cover art

Cities: Skylines II

Iceflake Studios · Paradox Interactive · 2023-10-24

SteamPlayStation StoreAmazon

Simulation

Modes: Single player

Releases: Oct 24, 2023 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), TBD (PlayStation 5), TBD (Xbox Series X|S)

Raise a city from the ground up and transform it into a thriving metropolis with the most realistic city builder ever. Push your creativity and problem-solving to build on a scale you've never experienced. With deep simulation and a living economy, this is world-building without limits.

7,845
playing now
56%
positive of 92k reviews
Mixed
steam rating
2,000,000–5,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
135
twitch viewers (latest)
81/100
critic score (2 outlets, IGDB)
66/100
IGDB user rating (51 ratings)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
$49.99
steam price (US)

7,845 players in-game as of 2026-08-30 00:00 UTC (census sample)

Cities: Skylines II is a 2023 city-building game initially developed by Colossal Order, with Iceflake Studios taking over at the start of 2026, and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a sequel to 2015's Cities: Skylines and expands upon many of its simulation factors such as simulated city and population sizes with improved traffic artificial intelligence and management schemes. It was released for Windows on 24 October 2023. A release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S was previously planned to be released on the same day, but was later indefinitely delayed. The game received mixed reviews with praise going towards its gameplay but its harsh performance requirements and other technical flaws were criticised.

Trailer

Cities: Skylines II trailer thumbnail

Official Release Trailer | OUT NOW I Cities: Skylines II

≈1,000,000 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Healthy
  • · 7,845 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 7,502 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~938/week).
  • · Review velocity up 6% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 2% of 6,674 Simulation games in the census by review count.
Estimated sales: 1.8M–4.1M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 91,740 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

lowest across shops (ITAD)$30.76-38%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $30.75 at GameBillet (2026-03-19)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $49.99 · on sale 67 of 94 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
11k11k20232026Week of 2023-10-01: 10,646 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 8,826 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 6,379 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 3,161 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 1,465 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1,035 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 1,010 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 919 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 554 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 1,146 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 691 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 1,751 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 529 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1,194 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 439 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 639 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 491 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 551 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 774 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 530 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 517 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 388 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 437 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 381 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 424 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 393 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 545 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 505 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 807 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 856 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 577 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 571 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 407 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 518 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 683 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 680 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 436 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 381 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 437 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 414 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 461 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 496 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 486 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 387 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 407 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 311 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 342 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 310 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 539 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 458 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 682 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 563 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 591 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 469 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 531 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 294 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 618 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 295 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 792 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 294 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 608 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 239 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 668 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 268 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 679 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 250 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 685 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 221 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 436 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 159 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

15k6.4k2026-08-06 21:00 — 8,283 players2026-08-07 05:00 — 6,487 players2026-08-07 13:00 — 11,343 players2026-08-07 21:00 — 9,251 players2026-08-08 05:00 — 8,722 players2026-08-08 13:00 — 13,447 players2026-08-08 21:00 — 10,605 players2026-08-09 05:00 — 9,808 players2026-08-09 13:00 — 15,371 players2026-08-09 21:00 — 10,996 players2026-08-10 05:00 — 7,377 players2026-08-10 13:00 — 12,606 players2026-08-10 21:00 — 8,893 players2026-08-11 05:00 — 7,288 players2026-08-11 13:00 — 12,432 players2026-08-12 21:00 — 8,522 players2026-08-14 04:00 — 7,192 players2026-08-15 12:00 — 12,990 players2026-08-16 20:00 — 11,810 players2026-08-18 04:00 — 6,812 players2026-08-19 11:00 — 9,766 players2026-08-20 19:00 — 9,898 players2026-08-22 02:00 — 8,112 players2026-08-23 09:00 — 12,175 players2026-08-24 17:00 — 10,846 players2026-08-26 01:00 — 6,648 players2026-08-27 09:00 — 8,158 players2026-08-28 17:00 — 11,376 players2026-08-30 00:00 — 7,845 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).

Price history

$49.99$27.712023-06-112026-08-212023-06-11 — best price $49.992023-07-24 — best price $49.992023-09-27 — best price $42.952023-10-19 — best price $42.282023-11-02 — best price $42.192024-01-15 — best price $49.992024-03-26 — best price $37.892024-04-15 — best price $46.082024-05-02 — best price $49.992024-05-21 — best price $39.982024-06-11 — best price $46.082024-07-11 — best price $39.892024-07-31 — best price $39.982024-09-08 — best price $46.082024-09-24 — best price $44.992024-10-17 — best price $49.992024-11-21 — best price $35.992024-12-02 — best price $35.992024-12-24 — best price $44.592025-01-03 — best price $41.622025-01-25 — best price $35.492025-02-05 — best price $47.492025-03-27 — best price $49.992025-04-27 — best price $38.492025-05-19 — best price $35.992025-06-05 — best price $49.992025-09-30 — best price $35.932025-11-13 — best price $39.892025-12-26 — best price $36.192026-02-03 — best price $48.992026-02-16 — best price $39.082026-03-19 — best price $27.712026-04-27 — best price $34.992026-06-15 — best price $34.992026-07-27 — best price $42.992026-08-21 — best price $30.76
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

2.1k2522026-06-01 — 348 pageviews2026-06-04 — 297 pageviews2026-06-07 — 448 pageviews2026-06-10 — 300 pageviews2026-06-13 — 361 pageviews2026-06-16 — 414 pageviews2026-06-19 — 438 pageviews2026-06-22 — 403 pageviews2026-06-25 — 408 pageviews2026-06-28 — 491 pageviews2026-07-01 — 320 pageviews2026-07-04 — 362 pageviews2026-07-07 — 339 pageviews2026-07-10 — 368 pageviews2026-07-13 — 313 pageviews2026-07-16 — 312 pageviews2026-07-19 — 366 pageviews2026-07-22 — 266 pageviews2026-07-25 — 326 pageviews2026-07-28 — 324 pageviews2026-07-31 — 265 pageviews2026-08-03 — 360 pageviews2026-08-06 — 286 pageviews2026-08-09 — 354 pageviews2026-08-12 — 265 pageviews2026-08-15 — 328 pageviews2026-08-18 — 279 pageviews2026-08-21 — 381 pageviews2026-08-24 — 436 pageviews2026-08-27 — 978 pageviews2026-08-29 — 513 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

9.0k02026-08-20 01:12 — 9,021 viewers2026-08-26 19:34 — 792 viewers2026-08-26 22:34 — 212 viewers2026-08-27 02:34 — 36 viewers2026-08-27 05:34 — 53 viewers2026-08-27 08:34 — 176 viewers2026-08-27 11:34 — 279 viewers2026-08-27 14:34 — 41 viewers2026-08-27 17:34 — 176 viewers2026-08-27 21:34 — 48 viewers2026-08-28 00:34 — 16 viewers2026-08-28 03:34 — 9 viewers2026-08-28 06:34 — 22 viewers2026-08-28 09:34 — 171 viewers2026-08-28 12:34 — 189 viewers2026-08-28 15:34 — 30 viewers2026-08-28 18:34 — 83 viewers2026-08-28 21:34 — 432 viewers2026-08-29 00:34 — 79 viewers2026-08-29 03:34 — 26 viewers2026-08-29 06:34 — 17 viewers2026-08-29 09:34 — 204 viewers2026-08-29 12:35 — 36 viewers2026-08-29 15:34 — 56 viewers2026-08-29 18:34 — 50 viewers2026-08-29 21:34 — 31 viewers2026-08-30 00:34 — 23 viewers2026-08-30 03:34 — 72 viewers2026-08-30 06:34 — 64 viewers2026-08-30 09:34 — 306 viewers2026-08-30 12:34 — 63 viewers2026-08-30 15:34 — 135 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Completion

44
achievements tracked
73.4%
earned "My First City"
15.2%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsFull controller supportSingle-playerSteam AchievementsFull controller supportSteam CloudFamily Sharing21 DLC

12 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese - Brazil, Traditional Chinese, Spanish - Spain

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)15,7580%44
Windows (Xbox)10,3131%36
Xbox Series (Xbox)3100%40

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

CasualEconomySandboxBuildingModdableRelaxingStrategyRealisticManagementSimulation

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Recent updates

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

Wikipedia ↗Official site ↗Discord ↗Speedruns ↗