The game is a dynasty simulator in which the player controls a Medieval dynasty from 1066 to 1337, though the DLC The Old Gods and Charlemagne allow for earlier start dates of 867 and 769 respectively, along with 936 with the Iron Century update. The game has been released as free to play in October 2019, and a sequel, Crusader Kings III, is set to release in 2020.
Since being released, it has sold over 1 million copies, which made it Paradox's most successful release before the release of Europa Universalis IV in August 2013. A Linux version was also released on January 14, 2013. An OS X version, Paradox Interactive's first in-house development for the operating system, was released on May 24, 2012. It was released for Microsoft Windows on February 14, 2012. Crusader Kings II is a grand strategy game set in the Middle Ages, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive as a sequel to Crusader Kings.
