Chart-topping city-builder Manor Lords hits 3 million wishlists four days before launch

GamesCity BuilderManor LordsChart-topping city-builder Manor Lords hits 3 million wishlists four days before launchWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords tavern - Peasants walking through town

Medieval city-builder Manor Lords continues to gather steam ahead of its Early Access release, which is doubly impressive considering its set in a preindustrial society. The game surpassedthree millionwishlists on Steam over the weekend, adding another 500,000 to the total in the span of seven days.

There’s good reason why Manor Lords is so feverishly sought after. Frasertook a walkalong the game’s muddy, cart-rutted streets earlier this month, and had a grand old time planning out homes, claiming neighbouring regions, battling bandits, and setting his entire village on an exclusively egg-based diet. " Manor Lords is a fetching city builder that lets you properly admire what you’ve built," he wrote in his preview. “I’ve spent a considerable amount of time walking around it as my noble, and even outside of that mode you can go from looking at a map of every region right down to street-level seamlessly.”

That said, the level of hype surrounding Manor Lords has led Slavic Magic to try to manage expectations. Shortly after mounting the summit of Steam’s wishlist chart, explaining that its inclusion of real-time battles does not mean that it’s a Total War competitor. “It’s a city builder with battles,” Styczeńwrotein a recent Steam announcement. “Yes, battles are there, but not as huge or as frequent as some of you might expect. The majority of gameplay is focused on city building and management.”

Manor Lords is also far from the only exciting-looking city-builder around at the moment. The genre saw ahuge resurgencein 2023, with games like Against the Storm and Fabledom adding their own twists to its central ideas. There are more to come too, not least 11 Bit’s survivalist sequel Frostpunk 2, which Chrisrecently discoveredlooks to be just as harrowing as its predecessor.

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