Olden Era sold 250,000 copies and 'broke even on development costs' in 1 day

Not a bad start for an old school strategy game.

My deep-down reaction when I first heard about Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era was, "What're ya doin'?" Does anybody really want a hex-based strategy game these days, particularly one whose glory days ended 20 years ago?

Well, as it turns out, the answer is a resounding "yes," as publisher Hooded Horse announced that the game sold more than 250,000 copies in its first day of early access.

That's a big number, but it's not the only impressive stat: 91% of the more than 3,500 user reviews on Steam are positive, adding up to a "very positive" overall rating, and it hit a peak concurrent player count of nearly 52,000 on Steam.

Those are Helldivers 2 numbers, baby.

HoMM:OE is also riding high on Steam's top-selling games chart .

Over 250,000 copies sold in less than 24 hours.

91% positive reviews on Steam.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has had an incredible launch.

We're so thrilled that players are loving this game as much as we've loved publishing it.

💛
Congratulations to the @unfrozenofficial.bsky.social team!

— @hoodedhorse.bsky.social ( @hoodedhorse.bsky.social.bsky.social ) 2026-05-01T21:22:35.434Z
"We are still over the moon and cannot thank you enough for believing in us and our project!" Hooded Horse and developer Unfrozen wrote in a Steam update .

"This is a childhood dream come true for the whole team and we promise to use this opportunity you've given us to the best of our abilities!"
From a more practical perspective, the strong start means the game has already recouped its development costs, a vital achievement for an early access game with more development ahead of it.

I should probably clarify that I didn't expect Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era to be a bad game, and it's clearly quite the opposite.

PC Gamer strategy pro Fraser Brown declared when it launched that HoMM:OE "isn't a reimagining or a divisive reinterpretation, it's just a brilliant strategy game ," adding that even though it's only just kicked off in early access, "it's already great."
What I clearly underestimated was the level of demand for a game that's so entirely unabashed about embracing a very different, long-ago era of gaming.

That's on me, but this is one instance where I'm actually quite happy to be wrong.

If you remain unconvinced, you can check it out for yourself, for free, courtesy of a demo available on Steam .

Unfrozen and Hooded Horse also dropped the first patch for Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era today, a small one addressing some of the issues that came up at launch.

The full patch notes are below.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80.

From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters.

He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer.

He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill.

Lots of Henry Cavill.

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