Inspired by the SimCity series, Banished, and Stronghold, Kingdoms and Castles is a game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Your kingdom must survive a living and dangerous world. Do the viking raiders make off with your villagers? Or are they stopped, full of arrows, at the castle gates? Does a dragon torch your granary, your people dying of starvation in the winter, or are you able to turn the beast back? The success of your kingdom depends solely on your skill as a city and castle planner.
Best gaming PC for Kingdoms and Castles in 2026
Full buyers guide →Below are the four PC tiers we'd actually recommend for Kingdoms and Castles today. These are our 2026 hardware picks, not the dated publisher minimums you'll find on Steam.
Budget
£7991080p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 8GB
- RAM
- 16 GB
- Storage
- 1TB NVMe SSD
Mid-tier
£1,2991440p · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 7700
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super 12GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
High-end
£1,7991440p · 144fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB
- RAM
- 32 GB
- Storage
- 2TB NVMe SSD
Enthusiast
£3,4994K · 60fps
- CPU
- AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- GPU
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 32GB
- RAM
- 64 GB
- Storage
- 4TB NVMe SSD
Official system requirements
These are the minimum and recommended specs as published by Lionshield Studios on Steam. They tend to be conservative — usually "what ran the game at 1080p when it shipped". For what you should actually buy in 2026, see the tier cards above.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 (64-bit) | Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 8.1 (64-bit) |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+, 2.5GHz | Intel Core i5-3470, 2.7GHz or AMD FX-6300, 3.2Ghz |
| RAM | 4 GB | 4 GB |
| GPU | nVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 256mb or ATI Radeon HD 5670 256mb or Intel HD Graphics 4600 | nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 1gb or AMD Radeon HD 7870, 1gb |
| Storage | 1 GB | 1 GB |
| DirectX | 11 | — |
Verified 18 May 2026 against the Steam store page.
Can your PC run Kingdoms and Castles?
If your CPU is roughly equivalent to Intel Core i5-3470, 2.7GHz and your GPU is at or above nVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, 1gb, you'll hit recommended settings at 1080p/60. For 1440p or higher, see the tier picks above.