Manor Lords surpasses dev’s wildest expectations with more than 2M copies sold so far

Developer Slavic Magic has confirmed that Manor Lords has sold over 2 million copies across all storefronts in the three weeks since its launch. The developer has also broken down the numbers and when the most copies were sold, showing just how much the game has grown in popularity over time.

In the lead up to its release, there was quite a lot of excitement around Manor Lords, especially because it was coming to Game Pass. However, the game’s sales have gone beyond what anyone at Slavic Magic hoped it might achieve. After an initial 1 million units sold and a concurrent player count of 173,000 in the first weekend alone, the game has gone on to sell another 1 million copies in the time since, with early access having only just begun.

Manor Lords‘ developer is hard at work processing player feedback and testing its first patch

In a statement with today’s news, Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender explained, “We had some pretty optimistic expectations and even some wild hopes, but reaching two million copies on Manor Lords so quickly has exceeded even those.”

The game’s first patch is now in open testing and should be pushed live for all players soon. It adds features and fixes from the developer and those the community has requested. My favorite so far has to be that corpses being carried away now have their own sprites, to add a massive dose of mortality to the experience of going to war.

It’s impressive that Manor Lords has sold so well, considering it’s an in-depth city builder with large-scale battles, economics, and social issues to manage as your settlements grow. It’s a blend of some of the best parts of games that sees you manage an entire civilization, and much smaller groups of people going through their day-to-day lives. I would have said that this made the game’s appeal much more niche, but that’s obviously not the case.

The game was released three days after Bellwright, which looks very similar on a surface level. However, Manor Lords offers a lot more to players who want in-depth management and the experience of running a medieval region as a lord. This is very different from Bellwright‘s tale of rising from the ashes to fight back against the lord of the land, which is why I feel the two haven’t really been competing, despite offering what might at first appear as the same experience.