Here’s why city-building game ‘Manor Lords’ is taking over the internet

Every month there’s a new video game sensation, and now it’s city-builder Manor Lords‘ time to shine.

Manor Lords is a mediaeval strategy game with city-building mechanics, and it’s taken the gaming world by storm. Despite only launching April 26, it has already hit a player peak of 173,178. It’s also Number Two in Steam’s top-sellers list, selling over one million copies despite launching in early access.

One of the possible reasons for Manor Lords‘ success is that it launched on PC Game Pass. Even so, it sold over one million copies, and that may be thanks to its relatively low price point of £34.99, the same as Helldivers 2, which was also a viral hit this year. Manor Lords is currently 25 per cent off, too, making it just £26.24.

Although it’s in early access, Manor Lords doesn’t look it on the surface. With gorgeous graphics, detailed animations, and plenty of gameplay mechanics, it’s easy to see why people have already spent so much time playing. There are changing seasons, varied weather, and designing the layout of your settlement looks easy.

With so many games these days costing £70 and being filled to the brim with microtransactions, it seems players are enjoying a return to more simple, cheaper times.

Over on the game’s subreddit, players are praising it for already feeling like a “bare, but feature-complete game.” One player said after 15 hours, they’re happy to put it down for six months and come back once some updates have taken hold.

Not being live service might also be helping Manor Lords. While everyone is talking about it on X/Twitter, the single-player nature of the game means it’s easy to pick up, play for a bit, and put back down.

In the meantime, the Manor Lords developers are hoping to use the community to balance out the “overpowered” trading system.