One Of The Year’s Biggest Game Is An Indie Drug Dealer Sim

If you look at the the top played games on Steam, you might notice something new right at the top. Above the usual heavy hitters and longtime classics you’ll spot Schedule I, an open-world, first-person drug-dealing sim developed by one guy that, as I write this, has over 340,000 concurrent players on Steam.

Schedule I was released on March 24 and quickly blew up on Valve’s popular PC gaming storefront. The game launched in early access at the relatively low price point of $20 and, just a week later, it’s one of the biggest games of 2025. On March 3o, during peak weekend play time, SteamDB showed that Schedule I had an astounding 414,000+ concurrent players on Steam. That’s better than games like Starfield, Grand Theft Auto V, and Destiny 2.

So what is Schedule I? Well, it’s a drug-dealing sim. That’s not a joke or me being silly, that’s straight up what the game is. Here’s Schedule I’s Steam store description:

You’re a small-time drug dealer rolling into a fresh town with no cash, no product and no connections. Build your drug empire from the ground up in the grungy west-coast city of Hyland Point. Contend against intensifying law enforcement and deadly cartel competitors to expand your empire and reach the peak of the underworld.

Players have to manufacture their own drugs, transport them, sell the illegal goods, and occasionally fight other dealers and criminals. The game is currently only available on Steam and can be played either solo or with a buddy via co-op.

According to the Reddit posts from Tyler, the developer behind Schedule I, the drug-dealing sim has been in development for over three years and was created mostly by himself.

When asked how it feels to have a game blow up on Steam like this and become one of the biggest hits of 2025, Tyler had this to say via Reddit:

“Honestly it’s amazing but pretty overwhelming,” said the solo dev. “I never expected this kind of response! At the moment I’m just trying to stay focused and get patches out ASAP. Also looking forward to getting started on content updates as soon as all major bugs are patched.”

When asked about porting the game to consoles, Tyler seemed interested but wasn’t sure if Microsoft and Sony would allow the game on their digital stores.

Reviews for Schedule I are extremely positive and most players seem happy with the content available at launch and are excited for the game to expand via promised updates that will arrive over the next few weeks and months.

In a time when massive games developed by hundreds of people and costing tens of millions of dollars (or more) are flopping, its nice to see something succeeding and proving that you don’t need hyper-realistic graphics or live-service features to succeed. Instead, you can just make a game that offers players a unique or enticing experience and sell it at a fair price. And if you get lucky and people like it, you might end up with one of the biggest games of 2025 and beat AAA studios and publishers.

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