Cities: Skylines
A city-building game that revived the genre after SimCity's 2013 failure.
Cities: Skylines is a 2015 city-building game developed by Colossal Order and published by Paradox Interactive. It is a single-player open-ended city-building simulation that allows players to engage in urban planning through zoning, road placement, taxation, public services, and public transportation, while managing budget, health, employment, traffic, and pollution. The game was a commercial success, selling over twelve million copies across all platforms by June 2022, and received favorable reviews from critics.
- developer
- Colossal Order
- publisher
- Paradox Interactive
- initial release date
- 10 March 2015
- platforms
- Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
- genre
- City-building simulation
- notable feature
- Simulation of up to a million unique citizens with realistic traffic congestion
Lore & Background
Colossal Order, a thirteen-person Finnish studio, had previously developed the Cities in Motion series focused on transportation systems. They sought to expand into a full city simulation, but publisher Paradox Interactive initially hesitated due to the market dominance of the SimCity series. After the critical failure of the 2013 SimCity game, Paradox saw an opportunity and greenlit development. Colossal Order's goal was to create an engine capable of simulating nearly a million unique citizens' daily routines, presented simply so players could understand city problems, including realistic traffic congestion and its effects on services and districts.
Reader's Guide
Cities: Skylines is significant for filling the void left by the 2013 SimCity's failure, establishing a competing franchise that emphasized deep simulation and player freedom. Its robust transportation system, derived from Cities in Motion, and its support for user-generated content via Steam Workshop fostered an active modding community. The game's success led to multiple expansions, console ports, and a remastered edition for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in February 2023. Its legacy includes influencing the city-building genre and spawning a sequel, Cities: Skylines II, released in October 2023 to mixed reviews. As of August 2026, the original game continued to receive updates.
Did You Know?
- The game simulates up to a million unique citizens, each navigating roads and transit systems.
- Players can purchase up to eight additional land parcels out of 25 within a 10-by-10-kilometer area, but mods can unlock the entire 81-tile map.
- The game's development was greenlit after the critical failure of the 2013 SimCity game.
- Console ports were handled by Tantalus Media, with a remastered edition released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in February 2023.
More in Sandbox games 1-24
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record