Cities: Skylines player logs 30,000 hours, leaves negative review

A Steam user with 29,926.3 hours logged in Cities: Skylines posted a negative review on April 11, 2026, describing the city builder as the "BY FAR most frustrating, enraging game of my entire life." The review was spotted and shared on Reddit's r/Steam, where users quickly did the math on what that playtime actually represents.

What 30,000 hours actually looks like

Here's the thing: 29,926 hours spread across the 11 years since Cities: Skylines launched works out to roughly 7.5 hours of playtime every single day. That is, by any measure, a full-time job. The reviewer also logged 68.3 hours in just the two weeks prior to the post, so this is not someone who played a lot back in 2015 and left the client running. They are still actively in it.

To put that number in perspective, a player who sank 1,000 hours into a game would be considered a serious enthusiast. At 30,000 hours, you are in a category that barely has a name.

It is worth noting that Steam's hour counter tracks how long the game client is open, not necessarily active playtime. A chunk of that time was almost certainly spent idling or leaving the game running overnight. But even if 75% of those hours were AFK, that still leaves over 7,000 hours of actual play. The number is absurd either way.

The review itself

The full text of the negative review reads:

"Constant updates break the entire game if it's modded. And it MUST be modded because the vanilla version is so lame it's unbearable. Paradox seems fixated on pastel cartoonish colors and buildings that look ubsurdly rediculous. The constant breaking with updates has made this the BY FAR most frustrating, enraging game of my entire life."

The complaint is specific: Cities: Skylines, published by Paradox Interactive, is essentially unplayable in its base state according to this reviewer. The modding community has long filled the gaps left by vanilla, adding realistic assets, traffic systems, and visual overhauls that transform the game into something far more detailed. The problem is that every time Paradox pushes an update, mods break. For someone who has built their entire playstyle around a heavily modded setup, that cycle of breakage and repair can genuinely grind you down over years.

Mod-heavy Cities: Skylines setup

The modding dependency problem

What most players miss about Cities: Skylines is how completely the experience splits between vanilla and modded. The base game is functional but limited. The modded version, built on years of community work through platforms like the Steam Workshop, is a different product entirely. Road-building tools, traffic management mods, and visual asset packs have collectively turned Cities: Skylines into one of the deepest city builders available.

The catch is maintenance. Modded saves are fragile. A single patch from Paradox can wipe out compatibility for dozens of mods simultaneously, leaving a carefully constructed city unloadable until mod authors push fixes. For a casual player, that is a mild inconvenience. For someone who has spent the equivalent of three and a half years of working hours inside this game, it is a recurring nightmare.

The irony is not lost on anyone following the Cities: Skylines franchise. The original game remains the gold standard for the genre, while Cities: Skylines 2, which launched in 2023, had a notoriously troubled release and has struggled to match its predecessor. The person who left this review was clearly playing the original, not the sequel, which rules out any confusion between the two.

The love-hate loop that keeps players coming back

There is a specific kind of game that does this to people. Cities: Skylines is one of them. The loop is compelling enough that you keep returning even when it makes you want to throw your keyboard across the room. The reviewer did not quit. They logged 68.3 hours in the last two weeks alone and then wrote a negative review. That is not someone who gave up. That is someone who is still showing up, still frustrated, still unable to stop.

For anyone curious about the city builder genre or looking to compare it to other simulation games, browse more guides and reviews to find what suits your playstyle before committing the next three years of your life to a modded road network.

The Reddit thread that surfaced the review has since drawn hundreds of comments from players sharing their own complicated relationships with Cities: Skylines, with many confirming that the mod-breaking update cycle is a genuine and long-standing pain point for the community. The reviewer is not alone in the frustration. They just have the receipts to prove they earned the right to complain about it.