Cities: Skylines II is a city-building game created in 2023 by Colossal Order. In 2026, Iceflake Studios began working on the game. It was published by Paradox Interactive. This game is a follow-up to Cities: Skylines, which was released in 2015. It includes more detailed features, such as larger simulated cities and populations, better traffic control systems, and improved city management tools. The game was first released for Windows on October 24, 2023. A version for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S was originally planned for the same date but was later delayed without a set release time. Reviews of the game were mixed. Players praised the gameplay but criticized the game's high system requirements and technical issues.
Gameplay
Cities: Skylines II allows players to build a city on a virtual piece of land. Players can create roads, assign areas for different uses, build utilities, and set up city services to attract residents and businesses. Players can also choose city rules, such as tax rates and laws, to affect how the city grows and earn money to expand further.
At the start, players have access to nine tiles of land to build on. As they complete goals, they can buy more tiles using city funds. The first game allowed up to nine tiles covering 33.1776 km (12.8099 sq mi) of area, and the remastered version allowed 25 tiles covering 92.16 km (35.58 sq mi). Cities: Skylines II lets players build on up to 441 tiles, covering 171.33 km (66.15 sq mi). With a third-party modification, this can increase to 529 tiles, covering 205.52 km (79.35 sq mi). Each tile in this game is much smaller than in the earlier version. Unlike the first game, which had a limit of about 65,000 citizens, the number of citizens that can be simulated in Cities: Skylines II depends on the player’s computer or console power. Each city can earn up to 2 billion currency units. Maps in the game are based on preset climates, which affect weather patterns. Weather and city population behavior follow daily and yearly cycles, with each in-game day and night equal to one month of simulation time. In colder climates, winter may bring snow, while summer might cause flooding or tornadoes. These events can be managed by building disaster response facilities. Like the earlier version, the game uses a compressed time system.
Cities: Skylines II improves on the city-building features of the first game. It includes more detailed transportation and economic systems, better construction and customization options, such as American and European styles, and advanced modding tools. Players can adjust residential, commercial, and industrial zones more precisely, including new zone types like low-income residential and mixed-use areas. Special buildings can be unlocked by reaching certain goals and can affect land value and other properties. Citizens now use smarter methods to choose traffic routes, considering factors like distance, cost, comfort, and personal preferences, rather than relying only on distance. Services like police and fire stations can be assigned to specific districts to improve response times. In addition to public safety, deathcare, education, and waste management, the game adds services for telecommunications and welfare. These services can be upgraded at existing locations instead of building separate buildings. Transport options for passengers and freight are more flexible, allowing trade with other virtual cities. Instead of unlocking transport features based on city size, players use a technology tree to spend development points and unlock desired options.
Development
Cities: Skylines II was announced on March 6, 2023, during the Paradox Announcement Show 2023. The game includes eight downloadable content packs planned for release, such as the San Francisco Set, Beach Properties Asset Pack, two Content Creator Packs, the Bridges & Ports Expansion, and three Radio Stations in the Ultimate Edition. These packs are available on Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms. Colossal Order, the game’s developer, originally planned to release the game in late 2020, but delays occurred during development.
Cities: Skylines II uses the Unity engine, like its predecessor. Initially, the game was intended to launch on computers and consoles at the same time. However, on September 28, 2023, Paradox Interactive announced that the console versions would not be released on October 24 as planned. Instead, the console release was delayed until spring 2024. Preorders for the console versions were canceled, and refunds were given to buyers. Colossal Order stated the delay was to improve console gameplay quality and optimize both console and PC versions. The minimum requirements for the PC version were also increased. In the week before the PC release, Colossal Order mentioned the game’s performance might not meet expectations at launch but planned patches to improve it. Paradox Interactive noted challenges in making the game playable on consoles and hoped for progress by April 2024 to continue development. In July 2024, another delay was announced due to stability and performance issues. On November 17, 2025, Colossal Order announced it would stop working on Cities: Skylines II, and future development of the game and the Cities Skylines franchise would be handled by Iceflake Studios. As of early 2026, no release date for console versions has been shared by Iceflake Studios.
In October 2023, Colossal Order confirmed that user modifications, like the original game, would be supported. However, mods would only be available through the Paradox Mods library, which allows cross-platform use, rather than through Steam Workshop. User modifications can add content or change how the game works by altering its code. This lets players adjust settings, mechanics, and add new maps or assets. At least eight building style packs, created by popular content creators from the first game, will be offered for free through Paradox Mods. This feature was not available at the game’s initial release, as stated by the publisher. Paradox Mods was launched on March 25, 2024.
As of April 2025, thirteen DLCs are available for the game, with more planned for 2026. In April 2024, Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive released a joint statement responding to criticism about the Beach Properties DLC. The DLC was removed from the Steam storefront, and refunds were offered to buyers. Ultimate Edition owners received three additional creator packs and three more radio stations. The statement promised to focus on improving the base game and modding tools, prioritize free patches and updates, and hold meetings with player representatives.
Reception
Cities: Skylines II received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to Metacritic, a website that collects reviews. The game was nominated for "Best Sim / Strategy Game" at The Game Awards 2023.
Leana Hafer from IGN said the game has new systems that are enjoyable but needs improvements after its release, comparing it to a beta version of a game. Ed Smith from PCGamesN wrote that the game started with peaceful gameplay but later caused frustration and anger. In his review, which gave the game a score of seven out of ten, he said the game loses some personal qualities when it becomes larger, and performance problems affect its quality. He compared Skylines II to SimCity (2013), noting both games had similar issues with playability and performance. In April 2024, Rock Paper Shotgun reported that performance had improved but still needed more work. Their tests showed some areas had double the frame rates.
The first downloadable content (DLC) for Cities: Skylines II, called Beach Properties, received mostly negative reviews. Only 4% of Steam reviews were positive three days after its release. Players said the DLC lacked beaches and had a high price for the content. In response, the game's developers apologized, said they would make the content free, offer refunds, and focus on fixing gameplay issues before releasing more DLC.
After the game launched, players gave it mixed reviews, with many criticizing performance problems and bugs. Since its release in 2023, Paradox has not changed public opinion about the game, and most Steam reviews in 2024 were negative. In the eighth developer diary, Philip Hallikainen of Paradox said feedback from players had become very negative. Players criticized the Beach Properties DLC for not adding meaningful features and for focusing on paid expansions instead of improving the game.
One issue players noticed was that each character's teeth were shown in detail. However, since characters do not open their mouths and the camera is usually far away, the teeth are not visible. Developers confirmed this and said it does not affect performance. Colossal Order plans to fix performance issues, including those related to characters' teeth.
As of November 28, 2025, Steam reviews remain mixed, with many players still reporting performance problems.
At launch, the game had more than 100,000 players online at the same time on Steam. In February 2024, Paradox said the game had sold more than 1 million copies.
In April 2024, Colossal Order apologized for the backlash from the main game and the Beach Properties DLC. They promised to refund all players who bought the DLC pack, give extra content to owners of the Ultimate edition, and focus on fixing the game's technical problems before creating new expansions.