text: Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive have announced its city-building sim Cities: Skylines has racked up sales of 250,000 in its first 24 hours.
  
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  The number includes pre-orders and breaks the record for every other title in Paradox's stables over the same period of time. Considering the development team began life with just nine people on board, it's a remarkable achievement.An antidote to the disappointment caused by 2013's SimCity, our review of Cities: Skylines (which, it should be noted, isn't part of the Cities series of games like Cities XXL made by Focus Home Interactive) gave the title an 8.5 after finding its huge, bustling cities to be incredible fun. Cities: Skylines is about the simple joy of building," wrote IGN's Dan Stapleton. "It’s a really impressive and often beautiful simulation, where an amazing number of virtual people go about their business across a huge swath of land. Getting in and creating something is easy, though mastering it will require extensive research on community wikis to understand why growth is stunted even when you address your citizens’ apparent concerns."
  
  Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter