2024 so far has been the year of the surprise hits. First it was Palworld that came out of no where and blew up, then it was Helldivers 2. Now, it very well may be Manor Lords turn to shake up the industry.

As I wrote earlier this week, just before launch Manor Lords hit a staggering 3 million wishlists on Steam. While wishlists don’t mean much in the grande scheme of things since it’s not like a preorder, it at least helps publishers and developers gauge interest in a game. But as soon as the game launched today it instantly shot to the top of the Steam Charts beating games like Counter Strike 2 and Helldivers 2.

What makes this rise all the more impressive is that Manor Lords looks like a game that was built with a 200 person studio, but it was actually built by a single person, Greg Styczeń using Unreal Engine. Just how popular could this game become, especially for a city builder, a genre typically not known for producing huge game sales? In my opinion it’s got a real shot at doing Helldivers 2 peak numbers. But let’s dive into this a bit further.

As of this writing, Manor Lords has already surpassed 150k concurrent users on Steam at its peak (sitting at around 100k right this second). For perspective, the highest concurrent players for a city builder on steam is some game you may have heard of named Civilization VI which topped out at just over 162k. Manor Lords may very well top that in its first day! The only other city builder to top 100k is Cities Skylines 2. But we’re talking even bigger than just the city builder genre when it comes to Manor Lords.

As we speak it’s currently the 9th highest peak for 2024 releases. I fully expect it to pass 8th (Enshrouded) but how high can it realistically go? In my opinion I think it can get to 4th, passing Last Epoch and Dragons Dogma 2, both of which peaked at 264k and 228k. Can it approach Helldivers 2 and Sons Of The Forest peak? It wouldn’t shock me but it’s too early to say. But why do I think it has a chance? 2 reasons.

Firstly it’s price. People have shown they are far more likely to take a chance on a game in that $30-40 price range as evidenced by Palworld and Helldivers 2 and secondly the word of mouth on the game is already great and continues to grow the more people play it, again similar to Palworld and Helldivers.

This is what makes the rise of Manor Lords all the more likely to follow in those games footsteps. Games like Dragons Dogma 2 had the hype machine behind it and people knew what to expect, thus it peaked early. That’s what makes Manor Lords rise all the more interesting as we watch it grow, and we’re all along for the amazing ride.