Manor Lords publisher leads a strategy game renaissance, with the medieval city-builder racking up more than half of its 4.5 million yearly sales

Manor Lords screenshot showing medieval-style farm fields featuring autumn-esque colouring
(Image credit: Slavic Magic)

Manor Lords recently celebrated hitting 2.5 million sales with an update and a hefty discount, but it's not the only strategy gem from publisher Hooded Horse that's dominating the charts.

Heading Hooded Horse's sales for the year right behind Manor Lords with 1.2 copies sold is Against the Storm, another successful city builder with a stellar rating of "Overwhelmingly Positive" on Steam. Together, the two games could make up almost all of the publisher's 4.5 million sales over the last 12 months - but they're not the only smash-hit strategy titles from Hooded Horse proving to be successful this year.

Empires of the Undergrowth, a personal favorite of mine in which you lead ant colonies, has sold almost half a million copies with over 450,000 sales to date. Norland, another medieval strategy game with more sex, drama, and Game of Thrones-style backstabbing, has managed to sell more than 300,000 copies since its early access debut this summer. It's mind-boggling numbers all around, and it's not all Hooded Horse has to celebrate.

The publisher is also seeing some massive wishlist numbers - a whopping 9.5 million over this past year, to be precise. Falling Frontier, an upcoming real-time strategy sci-fi title that's honestly giving off some Warhammer 40,000 vibes, hit over 600,000 wishlists. Nova Roma, a vibrant city-building game set in ancient Rome, has earned more than 350,000 since being unveiled last year - and it's one that I genuinely can't wait to play.

Quite a few stunning city builders and strategy games make up Hooded Horse's portfolio, and the next couple of years will likely prove even bigger for the publisher. Any players with a love for either genre should have a quick browse through the entirety of the Hooded Horse collection on Steam for titles to potentially wishlist. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a list of games to browse and an empty wishlist to fill myself.

Manor Lords publisher says game devs and big corpos don't get on because making games is "fundamentally unpredictable"

Anna Koselke
Staff Writer

After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.

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