This year's best city-builder is bigger than ever and cheaper than ever, as Manor Lords celebrates 2.5 million sales with an update and a hefty discount

Manor Lords
(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords is the biggest city-builder of the year, and with its latest patch, sales milestone, and discount, it's better and cheaper than ever.

In a press release, Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse confirms that the game had passed 2.5 million sales - not bad when its solo dev's girlfriend said it would be lucky to get 7,000 wishlists. Clearly, that's cause for celebration, so the next big Manor Lords patch is leaving beta and heading to the main game.

Patch 0.8.004's headline change is the rollover to Unreal Engine 5, which should help deal with several bugs and crashes. However, there's plenty more directly relevant to players in here. Right up there is the introduction of fishing, which comes with associated ponds, jobs, buildings, and, of course, food. 

Speaking of food, there's a new Butcher artisan conversion, finally allowing you to use excess sheep meat and create sausages. Thankfully, there are also new food spoilage rules, so if you end up with too much food, it shouldn't necessarily bite you too hard. Finally, a new weapon type - crossbows - allows you to train and hire crossbowmen for your army.

The full patch notes go into a lot more detail about all of those changes, but they also contain even more good news - publisher Hooded Horse is running a publisher sale on Steam, which means that Manor Lords is currently available for a 30% discount. That's the city-builder's biggest price drop so far, so if you're not one of those 2.5 million players yet, this could be your chance to get on board. 

Check out our list of the best city-building games

CATEGORIES
Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

Read more
Manor Lords
Manor Lords patch adds new maps and a city builder staple, bridge-building, and also makes it so "taverns realize ale isn't magic – it's just ale"
A screenshot of a castle in Manor Lords.
Manor Lords dev confirms "castles and sieges are now in the works" for the city builder, as well as a new map that could get its own game mode in the future
a medieval castle on a steep cliffside
Move over Manor Lords, this cozy medieval city builder is so good it "ruined other builders," and it's leaving early access very soon
Screenshots of towns in Endzone 2
Post-apocalyptic city builder Endzone 2 is proving that Early Access is still a hit for PC
The shipping box in Stardew Valley
Cozy farming sim Stardew Valley has sold over 41 million copies as of right now, with over half on PC and almost 8 million on the Switch
Ender Magnolia screenshot showing a spirit shooting at a monster enemy
One of the best new Metroidvanias just got a huge update with New Game+ and heaps more content like a boss rush mode
Latest in City Builder
The Falconeer
City-builder dev implores Valve to give devs real social media tools on Steam, because they're "terrified of the future market" and need a "solution for indie sustainability"
A screenshot of a castle in Manor Lords.
Manor Lords dev confirms "castles and sieges are now in the works" for the city builder, as well as a new map that could get its own game mode in the future
City Tales - Medieval Era appearing in FGS Live from GDC
City Tales - Medieval Era is the next city builder destined for my Steam wishlist, and it's coming to Early Access in May
Raev Kingdom on the Distant Shores appearing in the Future Games Show Spring Showcase 2025
Disney's Robin Hood collides with Manor Lords in this charming city-builder where everyone is a fox
9 Kings armies at war in a green field
The hottest city builder in Steam Next Fest is actually a roguelike deck builder in disguise: "Break the game with thousands of insane builds"
Manor Lords
Manor Lords patch adds new maps and a city builder staple, bridge-building, and also makes it so "taverns realize ale isn't magic – it's just ale"
Latest in News
A screenshot from MindsEye showing a character leaning out of a car, shooting another car with a gun.
GTA veteran says the games industry needs to "get smarter" about what people actually want: "There are so many games, and I think we're starting to feel the effects"
Posing with a rifle in the Fallout 76 Ghoul update
Fallout 76's art director "had to fight really hard" so Bethesda would make the MMO's map bigger than Skyrim's
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Yasuke looking over the water to a shrine during sunset in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has an entire island stuffed with adorable kittens you need to check out, and it's based on an actual Japanese cat paradise
phase zero key art showing zombies in a hallway
Former Witcher 3 and Dying Light devs reveal their Resident Evil homage, complete with PS1-style fixed cameras
Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis System was only created because WB Games wanted something to combat Batman Arkham Asylum's second-hand sales, exec says