Microsoft"s effort to release all of its Age of Empires games in "definite editions", along with the launch of the new Age of Empires IV, has resulted in a surge of new popularity for the long-running RTS game series. Today, the company announced that the franchise now has reached a new total of 50 million players. The reveal was made during today"s Age of Empires 2024 livestream on YouTube.
In addition, the entire Age of Empires series is on sale for 50 percent off via Steam in order to celebrate the new player milestone. In fact, you can play one game, Age of Empires III Definitive Edition, completely for free right now on Steam.
Microsoft and its AoE studio World"s Edge also revealed during the livestream that the expansion pack for Age of Empires IV, The Sultans Ascend, which launched in November 2023 has now become the best-selling expansion pack in the franchise"s entire history.
Moving forward, the series will be adding a lot of new content across the series in 2024 including new expansion packs for Age of Empires II and III, a new season for Age of Empires IV, and a launch for the upcoming Age of Empires Mobile game sometime later in the year.
The original game in the series launched a while back in 1997 from the now shut-down Ensemble Studios. That studio released two more games in the series, plus a spin-off, Age of Mythology, along with new expansion packs, before the studio closed in 2009.
Microsoft later released upgraded Definitive Editions of the first three AoE games, and also released new expansion packs for those games as well. It expanded the reach of those games to the Xbox platform as well. Relic Entertaiment developed the all-new game Age of Empires IV, which launched for the PC in 2021 and later for the Xbox in 2023.