The best Cities: Skylines mods, maps, and assets

Now that you've got ton of new stuff to build with, where do you actually want to build? Here's a collection of maps and saved games you can put your personal mark on.

Catan XL

Cities Skylines mod - Catan XL

Finally, a map that really calls out for a multiplayer version Skylines. This Catan XL map gives you hexes to build on, each with their own separate resources.

Sea Turtle Falls

Cities Skylines mod - Sea Turtle Falls

With rivers, mountains, beaches, valleys, and waterfalls, Sea Turtle Falls has something for just about everyone, and presents a beautiful and interesting challenge for city builders.

River Dale

Cities Skylines mod - River Dale

This massive and impressive circular city bisected by a river sports almost 300,000 residents. There's still plenty of room to grow, however. Can you add a few more rings?

Volcano Crown

Cities Skylines mod - Volcano Crown

Perfect for aspiring supervillains, this map features an extinct volcano that now hosts a lake. With rivers trailing down to the sea, and several nearby islands, you can turn this beautiful map into a thriving city.

Boulder Rapids

Cities Skylines mod - Boulder Rapids

With beaches, rivers, mountains, and hills, Boulder Rapids is a nice map to start a city on, especially if you plan on using a dam at some point: there are great locations for several.

 Bora Bora 

Cities Skylines mod - Bora Bora

Not only is this Bora Bora map beautiful, it's a remarkably challenging location with an extremely limited amount of building space. Can you build a working city without destroying its natural beauty?

Delta of the Pharaoh

Cities Skylines mod - Delta of the Pharaoh Nile

With ore-rich mountains, expansive sandy reaches, and fertile flood plains, this map inspired by the Nile Delta is a great spot for creating your own jewel in the desert.

Los Santos

Cities Skylines mod - Los Santos

While we wait for GTA V to appear on PC, here's a fun way to visit the sprawling city of Los Santos, already built and containing districts that accurately mirror the game's locations. If you want to build your own city, here's a version only containing the roads.

Mission to Mars

Cities Skylines mod - Mission to Mars

Mars needs donut trucks! Civilize the red planet by taking advantage of pockets of ore and carve out a working city on this map based on Mars's Daedalia Planum. It goes great with this Mars color correction tool.

Cologne, Germany

Cities Skylines mod - Cologne, Germany

This highly detailed map of Cologne, Germany features the Rhine, highways, lakes, and resources. Will you build an accurate replica of the city, or something completely new?

Zion National Park

Cities Skylines mod - Zion National Park

The problem with national parks is the government gets upset when you start building skyscrapers all over them. Problem solved. This replica of Utah's Zion National Park is not just beautiful but extremely challenging to build a working city on.

Gabe Newell's Face

Cities Skylines mod - Gabe Newell's Face

If you've ever dreamed of building a city on Gabe Newell's face, then I have good news for you. I also have bad news, because that's a very troubling dream.

Finally, let's spruce up the way Skylines looks with some visual tools on the next page.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.