The Kingdom Come phenomenon: record attendance, game locations attract young people

Data confirms game effect
Recent data clearly shows that the locations featured in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 are gaining popularity and seeing a significant increase in traffic.  
 
„The spring months of 2025 brought significant year-over-year increases in traffic of tens of percent across all locations surveyed. This record growth cannot be explained by weather fluctuations or other long-term trends. The biggest contributors were young people under the age of 25,“ sums up the main findings of Petr Netolický, Product Manager at the O2 Centre for Artificial Intelligence Dataclair.ai, which compiled the analysis based on aggregated and anonymised data from April to June this year.
 
Attendance increased by tens of percent
Visitation to all of the sites tracked – Kutná Hora, Suchdol and State Castle Trosky – already rose the most year-on-year in April, shortly after the release of the second episode of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. This trend continued in the following two months, despite the fact that this May was significantly colder than last year's.
 
The biggest jump was recorded by the town of Suchdol u Kutná Hora– this until recently relatively little-known place became the model for a fictional medieval village set in the Posázava landscape. In April alone, 45% more visitors came here than in the same month of the previous year. Especially in this case, it can be assumed that the increased interest in exploring the local sights and surroundings was caused by the Kingdom Come effect: Deliverance.
 
The number of visitors also increased in places that have been of interest to tourists for a long time. Kutná Hora, a former medieval centre of silver mining, saw almost 30 % more domestic tourists this April than last year. That's a year-on-year monthly increase of about 22,000 people, for perspective. Visitor numbers to Trosky Castle, one of the iconic sites of the story, then increased by 22 % year-on-year this month.
 
„We are grateful for the support of local governments, churches and property managers that allowed us to enter places not normally open to the public. As part of our research, we have gained not only expert interpretation, but also access to valuable historical sources and materials,“ appreciates Director of Communications of the studio Warhorse Tobias Stolz-Zwilling,

Kingdom Come: Deliverance as a draw for traveling around Czechia
The gaming phenomenon Kingdom Come: Deliverance is clearly having a positive impact on tourism in Czechia. The second installment of the successful Czech video game builds on the extraordinary success of the first series, which already brought its fans to the picturesque landscape of Posazavi years ago. The sequel expands the game world with more real locations – especially Kutná Hora and Czech Paradise – i.e. places with a strong story, medieval atmosphere and beautiful nature.

„Considering the fact that this is the most successful Czech computer game, which has gained popularity not only in Czechia but all over the world, it is very likely that the interest of domestic and foreign players to experience for themselves the places where Henry of Skalice lives his adventures will grow even more. Indeed, the data released today confirms this. The game has a huge potential to raise the profile of Czechia in the world, even among groups of visitors that would be difficult to reach with conventional campaigns. We are fully aware of this fact and are actively working with this phenomenon. The authentic atmosphere of Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a fantastic way to introduce Czechia to the world,“ emphasizes Director of the Czech Tourist Authority – CzechTourism František Reismüller.

„Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a great example of how a game world can inspire real travel. Players – from Czechia and abroad – are increasingly eager to visit places familiar from the game's storyline. That's why a special guide has been created, which connects the virtual experience with reality and offers specific travel tips to the most prominent places in the storyline. In addition, photographs show the contrasts between the Middle Ages and today. Individual locations are also prepared for fans of the game – they offer special tours and experiences that bring the game world closer to the field, adds Director of the Central Bohemian Tourism Centre Jakub Kulhánek.

KCD Live: When the gaming world comes alive in the real world
The growing fan interest is being followed up by Kingdom Come: Deliverance Live, which combines digital entertainment with a travel experience – and does so right in the locations where the story of the second episode takes place.

It involved not only government officials and agencies, but also cities, municipalities, cultural associations and tourism entrepreneurs. The common goal is to bring the game world to life off-screen and offer fans a real experience through themed events, guided tours or perhaps interactive programmes in locations familiar from the game. An overview of all activities and planned events is available at www.kcdlive.eu.

„We knew Kingdom Come: Deliverance II would lead to increased interest in specific locations associated with the game, and we wanted the money invested in promotion to be spent efficiently and coordinated across multiple institutions. At the same time, we wanted visitors to not have to search for information about each location, but to have everything together in one place. This is how the kcdlive.eu portal was created, which now works very well as a place for presenting experiences and a form of catalogue where the interested party can choose what interests them most and what they can experience in each destination," explains project coordinator KCD Live Ondřej Slačálek

The project has already aroused interest on the international scene – this May it was presented at the EXPO 2025 world exhibition in Osaka, Japan, where it received a very positive response.

Following in the footsteps of Jindřich of Skalice is mainly Generation Z
Data from the operator O2 also shows that this year it was mainly young people who started to go to these places in large numbers.

„The results of the analysis clearly show that the game has had a major impact on increasing footfall among young people from Generation Z, those aged around 25. This group has clearly become the most represented visitor group in all locations surveyed following the release of the game. In Suchdol, the number of young people under the age of 25 increased by 310% year-on-year between April and June, in Kutná Hora by almost 250% and at Trosky Castle by 290%, comments Petr Netolický.

Analytical findings are confirmed in practice. The change in the composition of visitors is also observed by people who are in daily contact with these places.

„We have seen record interest mainly in the spring months, for example, May's visitor numbers were the highest in the entire time that Trosky State Castle has been open to the public. It was visited by over 16 thousand visitors compared to ten thousand last year. The composition of the visitors is also changing – more young people are coming and bringing in new activities – playing dice here or spontaneously singing on the stage, bringing the game fiction into reality,” describes Lucie Bidlasová from National Heritage Institute (NHA).

The managers of other monuments connected with the plot of the play are following a similar trend. Young visitors are no longer just passive tourists, but wander in the footsteps of Henry of Skalica as medieval pilgrims, sensitively perceiving the environment, asking inquisitive questions and creating their own stories.

„What do I appreciate most about the Kingdom Come phenomenon? That it can lift young and middle generations away from computers and bring them to explore real places. They want to experience the atmosphere of the storyline for themselves, awakening their imagination and desire to explore the world authentically. They question, perceive and inspire other visitors. I'll let one of them speak: 'I just had to visit the Sázava Monastery, whoever played K.C.D. knows. Mr. Guide was great, and not like the circus brothers who locked poor Jindra in a dungeon for a minor infraction. Even the game came up and we could compare photos with reality. We walked in the footsteps of Henry and reached the monastery by a 15 km cross-country walk, adds Jaroslava Matoušová on behalf of the National Museum of Natural History.

How the analysis was created
The analysis compared visitor numbers in April, May and June 2025 with the same period in 2024 in Kutná Hora, Suchdol and Trosky Castle and its surroundings. It was carried out by the O2 Dataclair.ai Centre for Artificial Intelligence using O2 Geodata, a tool commonly used, for example, for visitor analysis in the tourism industry, urban transport planning or movement analysis in retail zones. All data used for this analysis is aggregated and anonymised. Its source is the SIM card communication with the telephone network of subscribers who have given their consent. The data are then extrapolated to the whole population.

Podcast SBALENO: How to create a world that inspires journeys
How do you create a game world that resembles a movie, immerses players in history, and motivates them to explore real places in Czechia? That's the question answered by the CzechTourism agency's SBALENO podcast episode. The guest was Viktor Höschl, the art director of Warhorse Studios, who took listeners behind the scenes of the game's creation and how a video game story can become a tool for tourism promotion. The podcast is available on the Spotify app.