1.5 million Steam wishlists later, Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era publisher says the strategy series "defined our childhoods"

Heroes of Might and Magic is due for a comeback with the upcoming release of Olden Era, and there's clearly an eager audience ready for the return of the legendary turn-based strategy series. Publisher Hooded Horse has revealed that the game has hit a stunning 1.5 million wishlists on Steam, and is sharing stories of how the original games impacted the people now responsible for the follow-up's release.

"Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has passed 1.5 MILLION wishlists on Steam," the publisher says in a post on Bluesky, adding that developer Unfrozen " has put so much love and dedication into this project. We are humbled and honored to help bring you their take on the Heroes of Might and Magic series." It's currently the ninth-most wishlisted game on Steam, ahead of the likes of Witchbrook and Total War: Warhammer 40,000.

Hooded Horse has quickly made a name for itself as one of the premiere labels for independent strategy games on Steam, having helped incredible games like Against the Storm and Manor Lords find their audience. Clearly, the publisher has an eye for picking winners, and the early response to Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era suggests that another hit is on the way.

And the publisher clearly has the bona fides to help shepherd a HoMM revival into the world. "Heroes of Might and Magic III was one of the first games I played as a child (and was actually able to understand, as I lived in rural Poland and did not speak English)" a release manager identified as Aneta Z. says in a message also shared to Bluesky. "The precious CD appeared in our home and was really cherished for years. I played with my siblings and sometimes cousins on the family computer, which was set up in the corner of the kitchen."

Aneta continues, "We had a strict limit of 30 minutes of computer time per day, so the campaigns were taking a loooong time… We would still talk about the game while playing outside, and reenact the battles or the scouting in our backyard. It's been a comfort game for me for years afterwards."

As Hooded Horse itself puts it, "When we say the Heroes of Might and Magic series defined our childhoods, this is what we mean."

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has already partially proven itself thanks to an excellent, expansive demo that inspired one of our own HoMM-heads to pour hours in. In a press release, the publisher adds that the demo "saw 24,000 concurrent players, making it the 16th most-played Steam demo of all time." Near as I can tell from looking at the SteamDB records, it's actually the 18th most-played Steam demo by concurrent player peak, but it's close enough that I'll let Hooded Horse have this one.

These are the best Heroes Olden Era artefacts to look out for.