If you’ve been on Steam, Twitch, or gaming YouTube lately, you’ve probably seen Schedule I. It’s an indie drug dealer sim that’s currently the top-selling game on Valve’s platform, with more players than big hitters such as Monster Hunter Wilds, GTA 5, and Marvel Rivals after going viral across social media.
Schedule I launched last week and quickly made its way to the upper echelons of Valve’s best-selling and most-played charts. Here’s the official blurb:
From small-time dope pusher to kingpin – manufacture and distribute a range of drugs throughout the grungy city of Hyland Point. Expand your empire with properties, businesses, employees and more.
It’s developed and published by TVGS, aka Tyler, who took to reddit recently to sum up Schedule I’s explosive launch.
“Honestly it’s amazing but pretty overwhelming,” Tyler said. “I never expected this kind of response! At the moment I’m just trying to stay focussed and get patches out ASAP. Also looking forward to getting started on content updates as soon as all major bugs are patched.”
To that end, Schedule I’s Post-launch Patch #4 was released on March 29, fixing a number of employee bugs and multiplayer issues.
So, just how much of a success is Schedule I? After coming out of nowhere, it’s the top-selling game on Steam, ahead of everything from The Sims competitor inZOI to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Valve sorts its top-selling chart by revenue, which means the budget-priced Schedule I is selling so well that it’s bringing in even more money than its full price, triple A rivals.
As for how many people are actually playing Schedule I, it hit a peak of 414,166 concurrents on Steam over the weekend. That’s enough to get in the top 30 most-played games ever released on Steam. At the time of this article’s publication, more people are playing Schedule I than Monster Hunter Wilds, GTA 5, and Marvel Rivals.
And the people playing Schedule I are loving it. On Steam, it has an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ user review rating. Currently, 98% of user reviews are positive. Here are a few of them:
“A woman came up to me and asked for weed, didn’t like the price I offered, proceeded to stab me with a broken glass bottle. 10/10”
“Love this game
“I was dealing drugs in an rv and it blew up
“Got a motel and sold some weed
“Created a meth empire
“Then hopped on the game”
“Really great and hilarious game. Fun game loop and hilarious fun when playing with friends. I know it is in early access but I’d like the police to be a bit more active (They could search your place, look for you even after escaping, run speed greater than the players) as well as gang warfare and a larger map. Still in its current state its brilliant. Defo a 10/10”
Schedule I is obviously a meme game, so it remains to be seen if it has legs. But developer Tyler certainly won’t care. Clearly, their life has been changed forever, and substantial content updates are coming down the pipe.
If you’re playing Schedule 1, be sure to check out IGN’s Schedule 1 Cheats and Console Commands guide, and Schedule 1 Multiplayer: How to Play Co-Op guide.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
