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2023 · Iceflake Studios · City-building · Simulation

Cities: Skylines II

Create and manage your own city without restrictions. Offering a deep simulation and a living economy, Cities: Skylines II will challenge your decision-making skills and allow you to build the cities of your dreams. Get ready for a new epic scale in the most realistic city builder - ever.

Released: 24 October 2023
Platforms: PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X/S
Genres: City-building Simulation Strategy
Developers: Iceflake Studios
Publishers: Paradox Interactive
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: Bird view / Isometric
Themes: Sandbox
Country: Finland
Age ratings: PEGI 3 ESRB E
Languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain)
Copies sold: 1 million as of 2024-02-06
Time to beat: 28hmain story102hcompletionist

About

Cities: Skylines II is a 2023 city-building game initially developed by Colossal Order, with Iceflake Studios taking over at the start of 2026, and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is a sequel to 2015's Cities: Skylines and expands upon many of its simulation factors such as simulated city and population sizes with improved traffic artificial intelligence and management schemes. It was released for Windows on 24 October 2023. A release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S was previously planned to be released on the same day, but was later indefinitely delayed. The game received mixed reviews with praise going towards its gameplay but its harsh performance requirements and other technical flaws were criticised.

›Story

Here your city will evolve and react to your decisions. A dynamic and ever-changing world that is both challenging and rewarding. Use your creativity and strategic planning skills to grow your city into a thriving metropolis that will attract businesses, residents, and tourists alike. From residential neighborhoods to bustling downtowns, the possibilities are endless. Navigate through the complexities of running a city and keep up with the needs and demands of your citizens.

See your city grow and transform over time. With stunning graphics that are as beautiful as they are detailed, Cities: Skylines II will bring your city to life.

Players say

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Cities: Skylines II gives the player a virtual plot of land to create a city within. Players can lay down roads, zoning, utilities, and city services to bring in residents and businesses. The player can set city policies like tax rates, fees and ordinances to influence how the city grows, from which they also receive funds to continue to expand the city.

Initially the player is limited to nine tiles of space to build on but can expand outward by purchasing additional tiles with city funds as they achieve milestones. 15 sq mi) of area, meaning each individual tile is substantially smaller. 35 sq mi). Unlike the previous game which was limited to around 65,000 citizens being rendered at a time, the number of citizens that can be directly simulated in Cities: Skylines II is limited only by a player's computer or console specifications.

Development

Cities: Skylines II was revealed on 6 March 2023, as part of the Paradox Announcement Show 2023. Adding to the base game, eight separate downloadable content packs were already slated for release, including the San Francisco Set, Beach Properties Asset Pack, two Content Creator Packs, the Bridges & Ports Expansion, and three Radio Stations in the Ultimate Edition option on the Windows, Xbox and PlayStation online distribution apps. According to Colossal Order, Cities: Skylines II was originally planned to be launched in late 2020, but various issues encountered in development delayed the release. Cities: Skylines II uses the Unity engine, like its predecessor.

On 17 November 2025, Colossal Order announced the end of its involvement in the development of Cities: Skylines II. Future development of the game and the Cities Skylines franchise was moved to Iceflake Studios.

Reception

Cities: Skylines II received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. The game was nominated for "Best Sim / Strategy Game" at The Game Awards 2023.

Leana Hafer from IGN said that although it has new enjoyable systems, the game can get better with post-launch content, stating "it feels like playing a beta, or a very early Early Access game." Ed Smith from PCGamesN describes how initial peaceful gameplay gave way to "supreme frustation and rage". In his Cities: Skylines II review, which scores the game seven out of ten, he concludes: "Something personal is lost in its larger scale while performance problems spoil the beauty, but this could one day become the superior city building game." Smith compared Skylines II to SimCity (2013), saying that both games experienced similar playability and performance issues.