Paradox has announced that Crusader Kings 2—their soap opera grand strategy of medieval war, politics and intrigue—has sold over a million copies. It's always nice to see a PC exclusive hit the landmark, and in this case it's particularly notable. CK2 isn't an exciting military simulation (opens in new tab) , procedural multiplayer sandbox (opens in new tab) or tense psychological playground (opens in new tab) . It's a complex game about a map, a big list of people, and a working knowledge of the feudal system.
Perhaps more surprising is the other statistic released by Paradox: the game has an average playtime of just over 99 hours. That, when you consider all the people who still have it buried away in their pile of shame (opens in new tab) , amounts to a lot of people who must have played considerably more.
It must help that Crusader Kings 2 is still being updated—both with wide-ranging patches and new DLC packs. Up next is the game's seventh expansion, Charlemagne (opens in new tab) . It introduces a new, earlier start date and a story series centred around Charlemagne and The Holy Roman Empire.
If you want to see what makes the game so good, you should check out Rich's diary (opens in new tab) , detailing his exploits in CK2's Game of Thrones mod.
