WW2 grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV has just received a new expansion - No Step Back - which brings about a lot of changes that so far seem to elevate the game to new heights. In one respect this is proving literal, because the strategy game has just set a new concurrent player record, according to SteamDB.
Hearts of Iron IV has achieved a new all-time high of 68,019 concurrent players in the period since its launch this week. The previous record was set in February 2019 with 46,806 and, while there have been other spikes since then which have come close, only last night's release firmly managed to break the record. Even SteamDB's active figure for concurrent players at the time of writing is better than the 2019 record at 56,988.
While SteamDB doesn't tell us the whole picture - it doesn't cover other platforms, for example - even taking this specific slice of information the war game seems to be doing very well right now. It's already been identified as Paradox's most popular strategy game, and during the recent Q3 earning calls CEO Fredrik Wester specifically mentioned how Hearts of Iron IV player numbers had been growing since its launch five years ago.
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A million people played Hearts of Iron 4 in November, declaring 400,087,356 wars
It’s been almost two years since the last major expansion for Paradox Development Studios’ World War II strategy title. The developers have been busy, overhauling major systems in a patch and adding more content in the latest expansion all about the Eastern Front.
Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/11/hearts-of-iron-iv-no-step-back-is-now-out-alongside-massive-patch-some-thoughts
Hearts of Iron IV's latest expansion, No Step Back, is out right now and this could easily be one of the WW2 war game's definitive releases. Which is a bit excessive if you ask me, because HOI4 is already Paradox's most popular grand strategy game.
The expansion itself largely focuses on Focus Tree updates for the Soviet Union, Poland, and the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. There are also extra features that build on top of new free aspects, such as individual supply mechanics that build on top of the free logistics overhaul, and a tank designer similar to the ship designer included in the Man the Guns expansion.
From what we've played so far, not only are the new mechanics fun, but the WW2 game seems to run more smoothly as well thanks to a bunch of behind-the-scenes updates. We'll need to wait and see what this does to the war game's meta, and you may need help re-learning how everything works. Speaking of help, a bunch of brand-new tutorial videos have now been introduced for individual mechanics that you can watch in-game to bring yourself up to speed.
RELATED LINKS:
Hearts of Iron 4's Kaiserreich mod is the best historical strategy sandbox
Hearts of Iron 4 supply guide - everything you need to know
A million people played Hearts of Iron 4 in November, declaring 400,087,356 wars