Drug empire simulator Schedule I has a huge first day on Steam
Manage everything from clipping buds from plants to shootouts with rival drug dealers. Schedule I is among the top fifteen most played Steam games on day one.
Today, Schedule I, an open world simulation game about building a drug empire, has risen to the top fifteen most played Steam games. Schedule I launched in Early Access late yesterday on Steam, and at the time of writing has over eighty thousand players active but hit a 24-hour peak of over 100 thousand just a few hours ago, according to SteamDB. Of course, we will have to see if the game is able to maintain those numbers in the coming days, but, with Overwhelmingly Positive reviews (98% positive out of over three thousand), it might have tapped into something special.
Schedule I, a simulation game where you build a drug empire, has a huge launch on Steam
Despite the goofy human models and minimal environments, Schedule I is having a huge first day on Steam. Based on the trailers, in this game you will be able to fully simulate running a drug ring. Start by caring for a few plants in your small apartment, skateboarding around town to make deliveries, and eventually hire employees, get in gun fights, and escape in your car to avoid the cops. While surely simplified, it appears that no step in the process has gone unsimulated. You will have to do everything from snipping buds off plants and storing them in jars to shooting rivals in the street.
Schedule I took part in February’s Steam Next Fest with a free demo and that experience seems to have struck a chord with a large audience. That demo is also still available on Steam if you want to give the game a try before making a purchase. But Schedule I is also 15% off as an introductory offer until the end of March.
It might seem like an odd game to top the Steam charts, but the more I learn about it, the more it makes sense. Remember, Banana, a game about clicking a banana, has been among the top fifteen Steam games for months. But this is not to the same level of ridiculousness as that. Schedule I has an odd look to it, but that is part of the appeal. This game looks ridiculous on the surface, but that just masks an intricate simulation that goes to much greater lengths than many other sims.
While they are very different, compare this to something like TCG Card Shop Simulator, another popular sim game on Steam. Like Card Shop Simulator, most simulator games have a minimal scope in favor of focused gameplay. That has worked, there are tons of popular sim games that do this. But Schedule I looks like it’s trying to pull off a much grander scope than the average sim. Imagine if in Card Shop Simulator you had to go out and deliver the cards to people in the city, and then on the way home you got in a gun fight with a rival card shop owner. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Schedule I stick around at the top of the charts for a while as fans find it and get immersed in its strange world.
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