Hearts of Iron 4 playerbase soars as Paradox reports poor performance

Paradox Interactive, the publisher behind strategy games Crusader Kings III and the upcoming Victoria 3, as well as city builder sensation Cities: Skylines, has today published its report for the third quarter of 2021. Spoiler alert: it could have been better.

Buried among the business stats and numbers were some neat game-specific facts, such as Hearts of Iron IV receiving more than twice the number of players now compared to what it did during the height of its launch period in mid-2016. It's one of Paradox's most popular grand strategy games, and contributes to the five million active users the publisher also reports for October 2021 across all its titles.

The report was mainly mired by disappointment, however. This quarter has proven to be one of the worst in company history - revenues are at a two-year low, with profits for the quarter the worst on record, the company reports. One of the big driving forces behind this quarter's slump involves the writing off of several projects that Fredrick Wester - newley re-appointed CEO - states the company felt had been in development for too long, and weren't of the desired quality.

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