In case you take a look at the the highest performed video games on Steam, you may discover one thing new proper on the prime. Above the same old heavy hitters and longtime classics you’ll spot Schedule I, an open-world, first-person drug-dealing sim developed by one man that, as I write this, has over 340,000 concurrent gamers on Steam.
Schedule I used to be launched on March 24 and shortly blew up on Valve’s widespread PC gaming storefront. The sport launched in early entry on the comparatively low worth level of $20 and, only a week later, it’s one of many greatest video games of 2025. On March 3o, throughout peak weekend play time, SteamDB confirmed that Schedule I had an astounding 414,000+ concurrent gamers on Steam. That’s higher than video games like Starfield, Grand Theft Auto V, and Future 2.
So what’s Schedule I? Effectively, it’s a drug-dealing sim. That’s not a joke or me fooling around, that’s straight up what the sport is. Right here’s Schedule I’s Steam retailer description:
You’re a small-time drug supplier rolling right into a recent city with no money, no product and no connections. Construct your drug empire from the bottom up within the grungy west-coast metropolis of Hyland Level. Contend in opposition to intensifying regulation enforcement and lethal cartel opponents to develop your empire and attain the height of the underworld.
Gamers must manufacture their very own medication, transport them, promote the unlawful items, and infrequently struggle different sellers and criminals. The sport is at the moment solely accessible on Steam and may be performed both solo or with a buddy through co-op.
In accordance with the Reddit posts from Tyler, the developer behind Schedule I, the drug-dealing sim has been in improvement for over three years and was created principally by himself.
When requested the way it feels to have a sport blow up on Steam like this and turn out to be one of many greatest hits of 2025, Tyler had this to say through Reddit:
“Truthfully it’s superb however fairly overwhelming,” mentioned the solo dev. “I by no means anticipated this sort of response! For the time being I’m simply making an attempt to remain targeted and get patches out ASAP. Additionally trying ahead to getting began on content material updates as quickly as all main bugs are patched.”
When requested about porting the sport to consoles, Tyler appeared however wasn’t positive if Microsoft and Sony would enable the sport on their digital shops.
Evaluations for Schedule I are extraordinarily constructive and most gamers appear proud of the content material accessible at launch and are excited for the sport to develop through promised updates that can arrive over the following few weeks and months.
In a time when huge video games developed by tons of of individuals and costing tens of tens of millions of {dollars} (or extra) are flopping, its good to see one thing succeeding and proving that you simply don’t want hyper-realistic graphics or live-service options to succeed. As a substitute, you possibly can simply make a sport that gives gamers a novel or engaging expertise and promote it at a good worth. And in the event you get fortunate and folks prefer it, you may find yourself with one of many greatest video games of 2025 and beat AAA studios and publishers.
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