Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2has marked a very strong start to gaming in 2025, as a highly anticipated sequel that improves upon nearly every aspect of its predecessor. The commercial and critical success ofKingdom Come: Deliverance 2makes it an early candidate for Game of the Year 2025, and more content is still on the way with DLC slated for release in the coming months. While the success ofKCD2is impressive on its own, the fact that it has struck a chord with so many players as an unconventional RPG sets up a clear comparison to 2023’s Game of the Year winner,Baldur’s Gate 3.
AlthoughBaldur’s Gate 3has become a mainstream hit after its breakout success in 2023, the game likely wasn’t on many players' radars prior to launch. The traditional CRPG genre is nowhere near as popular as it was when the first twoBaldur’s Gate games were released, and despite the praiseDivinity: Original Sin 2received, developer Larian was still a relatively obscure studio. Warhorse Studios faced a similar situation withKingdom Come: Deliverance 2leading up to its launch, but now that the game has been released to glowing praise, the developer could be on track to repeat Larian’s impressive feat.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Success is Very Reminiscent of Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Makes an Intimidating Genre More Accessible
A big reasonBaldur’s Gate 3’s meteoric rise was so unexpected was due to the somewhat niche genre the game occupied. Not many could have predicted that a turn-based CRPG would blow up as much as it did and go on towin Game of the Year at the Game Awards 2023—especially after an uneventful three years of Early Access on Steam. However, the high quality of the game, along with its monumental amount of content, made curious gamers gravitate toward a genre they may not have touched otherwise.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2shares a similar story; while thefirstKingdom Come: Deliverancegame has its fans, many players were turned off by the game’s performance issues and jarring gameplay mechanics that required much more patience from the player than other RPGs. While fans of the originalKingdom Come: Deliveranceshared in the hype for the sequel, it didn’t necessarily stand out to players who may have bounced off its predecessor. However, with the game rapidly reaching the top of Steam’s concurrent player chart, and selling over 2 million copies in less than a month, it’s clearKCD2has done enough to draw in players who wouldn’t have given the original the same chance.
For comparison, the firstKingdom Come: Deliverancemanaged to reach 8 million sales in six years, whileKCD2has already reached a quarter of that in its first two weeks.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s Polish and Amount of Content Could Make it a GOTY Contender
Although mechanically,Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2isn’t much different than its predecessor, the way it has refined and polished these mechanics has drastically improved its accessibility to newcomers. Many of the original game’s more tedious, yet authentic gameplay elements still exist, but have been improved to make it clear what the expectations are for the player when engaging with them, and many of the bugs that existed in the first game have been smoothed out for a more seamless experience. It’s this commitment to launching the game in its most approachable state that hassetKingdom Come: Deliverance 2up for the success it has seen, echoing the launch ofBaldur’s Gate 3.
Another area whereBaldur’s Gate 3was praised at launch was the amount of content available for it right from the start. Despite only having the game’s first act available during its Early Access period, the sheer amount of content in Baldur’s Gate 3 available at launch made it a fantastic value and earned it glowing praise from fans and critics alike.Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2nearly doubles the size of its world, withboth Trosky and Kuttenberg maps to explore, and is set to receive both free and paid DLC content in the coming months, making it likely fans will have reason to keep coming back to the game throughout 2025.
