Kingdom Come: Deliverance II: The Czech RPG That Broke Even on Day One
A medieval role-playing game with no dragons and a 2.2-million-word script became one of 2025's surprise blockbusters. How Warhorse Studios turned 15th-century Bohemia into 5 million sales and a Game of the Year nomination.
Most fantasy role-playing games give you a sword and a destiny. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II gives you a blacksmith's son with a hangover, a horse that might wander off and a city full of people who will remember if you stole their bread.
That stubborn realism turned into one of 2025's biggest success stories. Warhorse Studios' sequel launched on February 4, 2025 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, sold 1 million copies on launch day, and broke even that same day. By February 2026 it had passed 5 million copies worldwide, and it was nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2025.
Bohemia, 1403
The game is set in 1403 in the Kingdom of Bohemia, today part of the Czech Republic. Players again control Henry, played by Tom McKay, the son of a blacksmith caught up in a civil war around the Bohemian throne.
The map is about twice the size of the first game's, split into two big regions: the hills and rock towns of the Bohemian Paradise, and the area around Kutna Hora, then Bohemia's second-largest city after Prague and rich from silver mining. The game was revealed in April 2024 with a video filmed in Kutna Hora's real St. Barbara's Church.
How a mid-sized studio made a blockbuster
Warhorse is not a giant. When work on the sequel began in July 2019, the studio had 131 employees; by spring 2024 it had about 250. Director and writer Daniel Vavra led the project on a heavily customised version of CryEngine, the engine behind Crysis.
The team cited some surprising influences: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. You can see them in how the game refuses to hold your hand. Combat takes real practice to learn, and the world carries on with its own routines whether or not Henry is there to see it.
On Steam, the launch was huge for a single-player RPG. It peaked at 159,351 concurrent players at launch, more than 60,000 above the first game, and later set a new record of 256,206.
Reviews and awards
Critics loved it. It scored 89 on Metacritic for PC and 88 on consoles, with 95% of critics on OpenCritic recommending it. Push Square gave it 10/10, Game Informer and Destructoid 9.5/10, and IGN and GameSpot 9/10. PC Gamer named it Game of the Year.
Award season brought:
- The Game Awards 2025: nominations for Game of the Year, Best Narrative and Best Role Playing Game
- Golden Joystick Awards 2025: second place for Ultimate Game of the Year
- BAFTA Games Awards 2026: winner for Narrative
- Ultra Game Awards 2025: Game of the Year
A full year of updates
Warhorse supported the game through 2025 with three paid expansions in its expansion pass, Brushes with Death, Legacy of the Forge and Mysteria Ecclesiae, plus free updates that added a barber, a hardcore mode and horse racing. A Royal Edition, bundling everything, arrived on November 12, 2025.
The road was not entirely smooth. After launch, a Saudi agency reported that the game would be refused classification over its optional same-sex romance; Vavra denied any ban and stressed that such content is optional. Some players also objected to that romance and to a Black character, and the studio defended its approach as historically grounded.
Why it matters
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II proved that a mid-sized European studio can compete with the biggest RPGs on quality and sales. It did it without fantasy, without live-service hooks and without compromise on difficulty.
What comes next is already moving: in May 2026, Warhorse announced a new project in the Kingdom Come series, and a Switch 2 version of Deliverance II is planned for 2027.
WGC's take: if you have any patience for slow, systemic RPGs, this is one of the best of the decade. Start with the Royal Edition and take your time. For more of 2025's best, see our 2025 AAA year in review.