A scene from Cities: Skylines, a city-building simulation game. It shows a wide road, buildings, and a blue sky.

Screenshot of Cities: Skylines showing a coastal city with palm trees, cars on the road.

An aerial view of a city in Cities: Skylines. Skyscrapers, residential buildings, and roads. Green hills and a river are in the background.

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Cities: Skylines is the ultimate city-building and management simulator for modern gamers. Step into the role of mayor and transform a small plot of land into a thriving, fully functioning metropolis. The game offers a realistic simulation of urban life, challenging you to manage every aspect of city planning, from roads and zoning to public services and citizen satisfaction.

You start with limited funds and a modest area of land, strategically located near an interchange. Your first tasks include building roads, zoning residential, commercial, and industrial areas, and providing essential utilities like electricity, water, and sewage. As your population grows, you unlock additional resources, allowing you to expand infrastructure, implement advanced public transportation systems, and create vibrant neighborhoods. Citizens follow daily routines, and traffic patterns change with the day–night cycle, adding depth and realism to city life.

Managing a large city comes with complex challenges. You must balance budgets while providing healthcare, education, police and fire protection, waste management, and disaster preparedness. Environmental concerns, traffic congestion, and public satisfaction all affect your city's gowth. Policies and districting tools allow you to tailor your city to specific needs, giving you control over taxation, building restrictions, public services, and specialized areas like industrial parks or leisure districts.

Cities: Skylines features extensive customization and modding support. You can design your own maps, landmarks, and buildings or download and import creations from a global community. The Steam Workshop integration enables endless creative possibilities, letting you enhance gameplay with new transportation systems, realistic buildings, or entirely new scenarios. Expansions and DLC packs introduce new elements to enhance gameplay, ranging from natural disasters and mass transit networks to historical city-building scenarios and modern architectural options.

The game's simulation is detailed and dynamic: traffic flows realistically, industries evolve according to citizen needs, and your decisions impact economic growth, environmental sustainability, and overall citizen happiness. With its combination of creative freedom, strategic depth, and realism, Cities: Skylines is a living, breathing urban ecosystem. It challenges you to think like a mayor, planner, and problem solver, offering endless opportunities to build and manage the city of your dreams.

Patch Notes

1.21.1 - 15/04/26 (Patch Notes for 1.21.1-f9)
1.21.1 - 07/04/26 (Patch Notes for patch 1.21.1-f8)
1.19.2 - 25/03/25 (New Content and Anniversary Patch - 1.19.2-f3)
1.18.1 - 29/10/24 (Mountain Patch - 1.18.1-f3)
1.13.1 - 04/06/20 (Patch notes for 1.13.1-f1)
1.13.0 - 06/04/20 (Patch Notes for 1.13.0-f8)
25/03/20 (Sunset Harbor Patch Notes)
v2020.1 - 28/01/20 (Paradox Launcher update - v2020.1)
1.12.3 - 22/01/20 (Version 1.12.3)
1.9.3 - 23/03/18 (1.9.3-f1 ChripX the second Patch Notes)
1.9.2 - 09/03/18 (Celebrate Cities: Skylines 3 year anniversary with some FREE Surviving Mars themed content in the 1.9.2-f1 'ChirpX' Patch)
1.9.1 - 05/12/17 (Carols, Candles and Candy / All That Jazz 1.9.1 Patch Notes)
1.9.0 - 19/10/17 (Green Cities 1.9.0 Patch Notes)
1.8.0 - 17/08/17 (Concerts 1.8.0 Patch Notes)
1.6.1 - 11/12/16 (Here are the patch notes for patch 1.6.1-f2!)
1.3.0 - 17/02/16 (Snowfall patch notes (1.3.0) & release information)
1.2.2 - 05/11/15 (Patch 1.2.2-f2 is live | Building limits increased!)
24/09/15 (After Dark IS HERE!!)
1.1.1b - 01/07/15 (Patch 1.1.1b is LIVE!)
19/05/15 (European Buildings and Tunnels are here!)
1.0.7c - 07/04/15 (Bugfixing-Patch 1.0.7c is LIVE)
1.0.7b - 27/03/15 (Patch 1.0.7b has arrived!)
1.0.6b - 19/03/15 (Patch 1.0.6b is LIVE!)