Cities Skylines sells like hot cakes, other than a niche

Many think that city builder video games represent a market niche. To dispel this popular sentiment we thought Cities Skylines. The game by Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive has in fact reached the recent milestone of 12 million copies sold, becoming the de facto market leader of the games belonging to the genre.

City Builder! We are thrilled to celebrate 12 million copies sold and are proud to be the market leader of the genre. And all of this could not have been possible without you. A huge thank you to all our fans for your incredible support , the words of the development team declared on social media, complete with a video created specifically to celebrate the number of copies sold.

12 million copies, sold on all platforms, over 7 years. It was March 2015, in fact, when Cities Skylines appeared on the market, managing to win over many players right away. Impressive numbers, which manage to show how much the genre can actually be appreciated and discovered even by new players. Yes, because these results are not only the result of the niche and of those who became passionate about this genre in the 80s.

City Builders! We’re thrilled to celebrate this year’s milestone of 12M copies sold & we’re proud to be a market leader in the city-building genre, and we couldn’t have done this without you!
A huge thank you to all of our fans for your continual support! pic.twitter.com/qoZLkfCZxF

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– Cities: Skylines (@CitiesSkylines) June 22, 2022

It is difficult to understand what were the factors that drove this success. The presence of the title on multiple platforms it may have contributed, but it is not enough. Behind this great milestone there were also other, important elements, starting from the support, with many DLCs and additional elements launched from the support. In addition, the presence of the title on Xbox Game Pass may have prompted a minority of players to purchase after trying it. Hypothesis of course, that it does not matter if they will find confirmation or not. What matters today is that developers can celebrate a title that has sold 12 million copies. And it is perhaps the most important data.