Cities: Skylines 2 maps are now "bigger than some countries"

The Cities: Skylines 2 devs have finally detailed the exact map size in the new city builder, and while it can't rival the modded maps for the original game, we're still looking at a map size of 159 square kilometers.

As noted in the latest dev diary video, 159 square kilometers is "bigger than some countries." A Cities: Skylines 2 metropolis would rank near the bottom of the list of geographically largest countries, but your dreams of constructing an exact replica of Liechtenstein in a city-building game may yet live.

In the original Cities: Skylines, there were nine map tiles to unlock, offering a total of 33 square kilometers worth of playable area. Cities: Skylines 2's map tiles are now about a third the size of those in the original, but you'll be able to unlock 441 to play on, making a total playable area of 159 square kilometers, nearly five times bigger than the original game.

But that doesn't really tell the full story, as folks like City Planner Plays have noted. On PC, the original Cities: Skylines was supported with a robust community mod called 81 Tiles, which expanded the playable area to a massive 299 square kilometers. Cities: Skylines 2's much larger vanilla maps are still only a little over half the size that's possible in the original game with mods.

Of course, the sequel's maps are still massive, and there's every possibility that modders will make them even bigger, too. Perhaps more importantly, the sequel is removing the agent limit, which means there will be far fewer artificial constraints on your city's growth.

These regular Cities: Skylines 2 dev diaries have city builder fans extremely excited, even when it comes to super-simple quality-of-life features.