Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era hits 250,000 sales on day one, tops Steam charts

Unfrozen announced on May 1 that Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era sold over 250,000 copies in its first 24 hours, topped Steam's sales chart, and hit a 90% positive rating. The turn-based strategy game also recouped its development costs on day one.

The numbers are exceptional for the genre: 250,000 units sold, Steam's #1 spot, 90% approval across 4,000+ reviews (Very Positive rating), and a 52,000 concurrent player peak. For a turn-based strategy title, this is a breakout performance.

The game's origin story is unusual. Unfrozen, a team of Heroes series fans, built a playable demo and pitched it to Ubisoft. The publisher greenlit the project after seeing the demo, which had already attracted 24,000 concurrent players—some logged over 300 hours in the test version alone. Fan passion turned into a commercial product.

The game launched on PC with day-one PC Game Pass availability and a 25% launch discount on Steam. For a franchise with over 30 years of history, pulling in both veteran players and newcomers at this scale is rare.

Turn-based strategy games face a tough market, but Olden Era proves the formula still works when developers understand what players want. The launch discount is still active—worth checking out if you're into strategy games.