Historical city builder surges thanks to a 90% Steam discount

Is there a better feeling than watching your city grow and flourish beneath your very fingers? Houses rise from the ground, people bustle about the streets, and factories produce everything you need to become a self-sufficient country in your own right. Then you've got the politics. You can invade other countries or liberate them. You can work your citizens to the bone or reward them for their toil. Do you build zoos or prisons, or both? These micro decisions have macro impacts on your city's success. It's no different in Anno 1800, which has surged in popularity this week during a mega Steam sale.

Anno 1800 focuses on, as you might have already guessed, the 19th century. Covering the industrial revolution and Victorian era, this is a crucial 100 years of intense progress for many countries, and now you're at the wheel.

Ubisoft describes Anno 1800 as a combination of the best features of its previous games, and it's widely considered to be up there with some of the best strategy games in the genre. Some of that delicious gameplay is locked behind an exorbitant amount of DLC, but the base game offers plenty to get your teeth into.

Right now, Anno 1800 is 90% off on Steam, which has led to the biggest influx of players since March. 15,585 players have logged in simultaneously over the past 24 hours, making it the second-highest surge in players since the game launched. It even reached more players than it did during a free weekend in November 2023.

If you've ever wanted to build fantastic cities, quash conspiracies, and rise to the top of the political ladder, Anno 1800 is well worth your time. Like all city builders, you need to be adaptable, strategic, and calm at all costs in order to succeed. Anno 1800's particular USP are the crews of specialists that you can send across the globe to seek fame and fortune.

Anno 1800 is on sale for $5.99 / £4.99. You can buy it on Steam here. Outclass your AI opponents and challenge the story-based campaign with thousands of other players while Anno 1800 for less than the price of a cup of coffee right now.

If Anno 1800 has got you hungry for more city builders, plenty feature on our list of the best management games. It's worth checking you've got one of the best gaming monitors, too, so you can see every detail in the crisp resolution the developers intended.

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