Cities Skylines 2 Dominates City Building
Cities: Skylines 2 has become the most played city builder according to recent reviews, with enhanced AI-driven population behavior and dynamic weather systems. The game introduces more granular infrastructure management requiring players to think like modern urban planners. Reviewers praise the robust mod support right out of the box, though launch-day performance on mid-range systems still needs attention.
The game's developer, Colossal Order, and publisher, Paradox Interactive, acknowledged performance issues before the game even launched on October 24, 2023. They chose to release the PC version as scheduled while delaying the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions to focus on optimization. Despite a "Mixed" initial reception on Steam due to these performance problems, the sequel was the top-selling game on the platform at launch. By the end of 2023, *Cities: Skylines 2* had sold over one million copies. For comparison, its predecessor sold one million units in its first month and has surpassed 12 million sales as of June 2022. In response to the technical issues, the developer prioritized patches and free updates over paid downloadable content. A significant "Economy 2.0" patch was released to overhaul the game's economic systems based on player feedback, and the "Bridges & Ports" DLC was delayed to ensure quality. In a major strategic shift, publisher Paradox Interactive announced in November 2025 that after a long partnership, original developer Colossal Order would move on to new projects. Starting in 2026, development of *Cities: Skylines 2*, including all future updates, console versions, and expansions, was handed over to Iceflake Studios, an internal Paradox studio.
