Paradox's quarterly revenue rose 15%, helped by Transport Fever 3 and a bigger Crusader Kings III expansion

Paradox Interactive, the Stockholm publisher of Crusader Kings III, Stellaris and Cities: Skylines, said on October 29, 2026, that revenue rose 15% from a year earlier to 456 million Swedish kronor (SEK) in the three months to September 30. Operating profit rose 27% to SEK 142 million. Chief executive Fredrik Wester wrote that it was “above all sales from our wider catalogue that carried the quarter,” because the period's few releases came late.

Against last year, Paradox said growth came mainly from Transport Fever 3, a game by the external studio Urban Games that it released for PC and consoles on September 29 at $49.99. Crusader Kings III also did better, because its By God Alone expansion, released on September 30, was larger than the event pack it sold in the same quarter of 2025. A stronger U.S. dollar against the krona helped too, especially as much of the quarter's sales fell in September. Age of Wonders 4, Stellaris and Victoria 3 faced strong comparisons with expansions and packs released a year earlier, while Cities: Skylines II kept selling well after a year of quality fixes and free updates.

A one-off gain

Part of the profit growth came from outside the games. Paradox sold Playrion, its French mobile games studio, to Trophy Games for an initial €3.1 million plus revenue-based payments over three years, and booked a gain of SEK 40 million in other operating income. Without that gain, operating profit would have been about SEK 102 million, below the SEK 112 million of the third quarter of 2025 (our calculation).

Costs rose with the new release. Royalties and revenue-based payments to studios and other rights holders rose to SEK 67 million from SEK 23 million, mainly because of Transport Fever 3, and amortization of released games rose to SEK 94 million from SEK 71 million, driven by last year's big releases and the new Crusader Kings III expansion.

After Bloodlines 2

The quarter follows a hard end to 2025. In the fourth quarter of last year, Paradox released Europa Universalis V and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, and made an operating loss of SEK 245.4 million after amortization of SEK 345.7 million and a write-down of SEK 355.3 million on Bloodlines 2, which Wester said “did not meet our commercial expectations.” Operating profit for 2025 as a whole fell 80% to SEK 146.0 million.

Wester's letter sets out where the company is now heading. Paradox wants to place “the bulk of our resources” on its own games, in genres it knows well, with teams that have worked closely with players for a long time, he wrote, and the sale of Playrion “follows the direction we have chosen.” Transport Fever 3 is an exception: Paradox normally wants to own the brands it publishes and to join projects earlier in development. The report also shows advances of $25 million paid so far to an external developer under a partnership for a game released in the quarter, with $5 million more due; Transport Fever 3 is the only externally developed game in the report's list of the quarter's main releases.

What comes next

Paradox lists seven coming releases, against eight a year ago. At Gamescom it announced Afterworld, a grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studio, and LEGO Skylines, a city builder from Iceflake Studios, and its balance sheet still carries development costs for the announced Prison Architect 2. Wester said a period with more releases lies ahead: the Crusader Kings III team is preparing what he called the year's big release, Silk & Silver, and Paradox has announced expansion passes for Age of Wonders 4 and Cities: Skylines II. For Cities: Skylines II they will be Iceflake's first paid expansions, which Wester said Paradox looks forward to putting in players' hands later this year. Paradox's report for the full year is due on February 4, 2027.