2019 – Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – 4.5 Million
Oh boy, oh boy. Were this list to be the best-selling game until the end of that calendar year, Planet Zoo or Total War: Three Kingdoms would be the winners. However, since we’re counting lifetime sales, then Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is the uncontested king of 2019, having sold over 4.5 million copies, proving beyond any reasonable doubt that the formula put forward in 1999 by Ensemble Studios is still very much loved by its extremely loyal and ever-growing player base. I don’t think anyone who reads Strategy and Wargaming skipped on this as a kid, and if they did, it’s time to give it a try.
2020 – Crusader Kings III – 2.5 Million
The “stab your political opponents in the back” simulator returned in 2020 and quickly became one of Paradox’s less contentious releases ever made, being pretty much a fully completed title from the get-go, instead of a videogame version of those science magazines you bought as a kid that came with the basis for a project and then steadily increased the price as you got deeper and deeper into acquiring more parts. In a very contest year that saw the releases of Iron Harvest (with almost 1 million copies sold), Desperados III (300,000), and Gears Tactics (not a lot of numbers available, but should be around 300,000 as well), Crusader Kings III remains the undisputed king (pun intended) of 2020, and it only continues to get better with age.
2021 – Age of Empires IV – 3 Million Copies
Looks like Age of Empires and Civilization walk hand-in-hand when it comes to sales figures. After 18 years since the release of Age of Empires III, and the flopp that it was Dawn of War III at the hands of Relic Entertainment, Age of Empires IV surprised everyone by… being really good. It respected the formula that made Age of Empires so successful in the first place, and introduced several improvements that made sense and worked great within its limited design frame: you can now man the walls, units have abilities that can be activated, and evolve through the ages is a bit more complex as you can choose permanent buffs for your nation. I also think its campaign is the best in the series.
2022 – Total War: Warhammer III – 3.5 Million Copies
Another amazing year for strategy games that I won’t forget anytime soon. Victoria 3 came out after being absent for a decade and sold over 1 million copies. Starship Troopers: Terran Command came out with the best real-time strategy single-player campaign since Starcraft 2, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns flopped terribly despite being one of my favourite games of all time. What didn’t flop was the release of Total War: Warhammer III, the final instalment of the very successful series of Warhammer games that breathed new life into Creative Assembly. It followed closely the design decisions of Warhammer II and each of the factions has a custom-designed campaign with objectives and play styles that fit their lore. If you enjoy Total War and don’t mind the fantastical setting, I think you should try out the Warhammer titles, but that’s just me.
2023 – Wartales – 1 Million Copies
Another incredible year filled with instant classics, 2023 saw the release of Jagged Alliance 3, Second Front (my favourite game of the year), Shadow Gambig: The Cursed Crew, The Great War: Western Front and Xenonauts 2. However, it was Wartales, the turn-based strategy set in a dark-medieval open world that took the sales figure cake by selling more than 1 million copies, and putting its developer, Shiro Games, on the map. They also released Dune: Spice Wars, a successful 4X set in the titular universe that sold over 500,000 copies.
2024 – Manor Lords – 2.5 Million Copies
Look at that, another list where Manor Lords comes first. It was first at my best strategy games of 2024, and my best games of every year, for the last 20 years. Now it’s on the list of the best-selling games of the last 20 years, and it’s not me saying it, it’s you, the people who bought the game. In fact, this medieval town-builder was bought 2.5 million times. In a year that saw the release of massive titles like Frostpunk 2, Homeworld 3, Ara: History Untold, and Millenia, the strategy sales chart was topped by a guy who built a medieval city builder as a solo developer. I wrote that Manor Lods is for the strategy genre Baldur’s Gate 3 is for role-playing games, Company of Heroes was for real-time strategy and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was for shooters, and I’m happy to see that as of right now, I’m not wrong, and I’m happy that the single developer managed to prove that there’s a lot of money to be made in strategy games, especially historical ones, especially if you know what you’re doing.
Support Strategy and Wargaming
I do what I do in Strategy and Wargaming because I love to do this, and I’m never going to stop. If you would like to support me with that, you can buy me a coffee for a dollar if you’re feeling generous. If you can’t, no worries, Strategy and Wargaming will always be free, and I’d love to have you around!
Leave a Reply