Hearts of Iron 5 release date speculation

Paradox has said nothing about it so far but, given HOI4's success, we reckon HoI5 is on the horizon somewhere - here are our speculations.

A digital artwork from hearts of iron 5 showing a WW2 rocket being assembled ready to fire

Hearts of Iron 4 is one of Wargamer’s favourite PC grand strategy beasts, and – while it’s not been announced yet – we can’t help but hope to see a Hearts of Iron 5. We’ve not much to go on, but – digging through Paradox’s previous releases for HOI4, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings – we’ve pulled together some loose predictions here.

 

 

We think suspicions of a nascent HOI5 are justified mainly on account of the fourth game’s riotous success as one of the best WW2 games around.

Since its arrival in 2016, HOI4’s toybox of alternate WW2 histories and crunchy, complex systems has managed to be many things to many people. Like learning to perfect the mechanisms of war? It offers every possible land, sea and air war on earth.

Best of all, like all Paradox grand strategy titles, it has lived a long, busy life, accumulating whole ranks of cracking HOI4 DLC, and the vast, flourishing scene of HOI4 mods has expanded the game’s horizons many-fold.

And yet – by mainstream game standards at least – Hearts of Iron 4 is getting old. Originally released in 2016, the base game turns seven this month, June 2023. While hardcore players still have a laundry list of expansions and reworks they’d like, the question has begun to be asked: how many of those new goodies can be expected for this game – and how many will have to wait for the – presumably inevitable – Hearts of Iron 5?

We’ll keep trawling Paradox Interactive’s statements on the series, and the web at large, to collect together everything we know so far about the expected sequel – and don’t worry, we’ll keep this guide updated regularly, as we glean more nuggets of information on Hearts of Iron 5.

A digital artwork from Hearts of Iron 4 showing a tiger tank in the desert with Erwin Rommel

Hearts of Iron 5 release date speculation

Unless Paradox Interactive has a big surprise up its sleeve, we don’t think we’ll hear about a Hearts of Iron 5 release date until late 2024 at the earliest. The HOI4 DLC Trial of Allegiance dropped on March 7, 2024, and we’ve heard no hint of a new full release on the horizon yet.

That said, if the historical examples of older Paradox siblings are anything to go by, we may not be too far from HOI5 after all.

Let’s show our working: there were eight years between Crusader Kings (2004) and CK2 (2012), and then another eight before Crusader Kings 3 arrived in 2020. Hearts of Iron 4 was first released in 2016, so 2024 marks its eighth year as reigning monarch of all WW2 grand strategy games. And, as Paradox superfans know all too well: all monarchs need an heir…

Digital artwork from hearts of iron 4 showing USA ships, landing craft, trucks, vehicles and infantry on the Normandy beaches

What could the Hearts of Iron 5 gameplay be like?

When the time does come for a sequel, it will be interesting to see if the Hearts of Iron 5 gameplay will follow HoI4’s lead and hedge its bets between alternate history sandbox and WW2 wargame – or firmly decide to embrace itself as a strict World War II simulator.

Or (the wild card) perhaps it could lean more towards the grand strategy portion of its heritage, turning away from pinpoint military planning, in favour of deeper political and economic mechanics, and a wider timescale.

We’ll be happy either way, as long as you can still create satisfying stories by being rubbish at the game…

A gameplay screenshot from hearts of iron 4 showing German Reich troops attacking along a long winding frontline

Hearts of Iron 5 news

We’re going to rip this band-aid off straight away: there’s almost nothing to get our teeth into yet, in terms of Hearts of Iron 5 news, leaks or rumours.

So far, the most exciting moment was when Paradox accidentally wrote “Hearts of Iron V: Man the Guns” on one of their French-language Steam pages (Man the Guns, of course, is a Hearts of Iron 4 DLC).

We’ve got our feelers out ready, though – as soon as there’s something solid, we’ll let you know.

screenshot from the Allied Speeches DLC for Hearts of Iron 4

While we’re all waiting, why not review your Hearts of Iron 4 mods loadout? Alternatively, get off your screen and explore the best historical board games.