I agree. My guess is that they will announce Chronicles 3 near the end of summer and release it sometime early in the autumn. That would fit the pattern of the previous Chronicles DLCs, while the Scandinavian mainline DLC could then come in early 2027. So Chronicles 3 could come out late september or early october.
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I just wonder what the next theme would be. The ending of Alexander the Great also seems to hint at Rome. The narrator contrasts Alexander’s empire, which rose and fell quickly, with another empire that grew slowly and endured. That sounds much more like a tease for the rise of the Roman Republic than for a Diadochi-focused DLC. Because of that, I think Rome, Carthage and possibly the Gauls or Iberians are the most likely civilizations.
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Doesn’t neccessarly mean it’s the same team working on the architecture on spin-off.
However yes, three dlc is a lot but they said they had big surprise so we’ll see soon, my instinct tells me they aim for 2 vanilla + 1 chronicle this year. I can’t really explain why, it’s just a feeling, maybe I’m wrong, maybe i’m right, only official announcement will tell us.
I think three DLCs in one year would be very unlikely. The average gap between the last few AoE2 DLCs has been around six months, and we are already in July. If Chronicles 3 releases in autumn, another mainline DLC in winter would leave only two or three months between them.
That would also be awkward from a marketing perspective, especially because many players would still be playing through the Chronicles campaign when promotion for the next DLC begins. My guess is still Chronicles 3 in autumn 2026, followed by the Scandinavian mainline DLC in spring 2027.
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They announced 3 for AoE4, finally they go with 4. That’s why I’m thinking a 3rd dlc this year may be possible.
I understand why the AoE4 situation makes you think it is possible, but I don’t think it is directly comparable to AoE2. AoE4 had its expansions announced well in advance, while we are already in July and AoE2 still has no teaser for another mainline DLC.
Even if three DLCs are technically possible, the release and marketing schedule would be extremely crowded. If Chronicles 3 comes out in autumn, a December mainline DLC would have to be announced almost immediately afterwards, before many players had even finished the Chronicles campaign. I still think two AoE2 DLCs this year is much more realistic.
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The average gap between the last few AoE2 DLCs has been around six months. If Chronicles 3 releases in late September or October 2026, the next mainline DLC would fit the usual schedule much better in spring 2027 than in December 2026.
| DLC | Release date | Gap since previous DLC |
|---|---|---|
| Lords of the West | January 26, 2021 | — |
| Dawn of the Dukes | August 10, 2021 | 196 days, about 6.4 months |
| Dynasties of India | April 28, 2022 | 261 days, about 8.6 months |
| Return of Rome | May 16, 2023 | 383 days, about 12.6 months |
| The Mountain Royals | October 31, 2023 | 168 days, about 5.5 months |
| Victors and Vanquished | March 14, 2024 | 135 days, about 4.4 months |
| Chronicles: Battle for Greece | November 14, 2024 | 245 days, about 8 months |
| The Three Kingdoms | May 6, 2025 | 173 days, about 5.7 months |
| Chronicles: Alexander the Great | October 14, 2025 | 161 days, about 5.3 months |
| The Last Chieftains | February 17, 2026 | 126 days, about 4.1 months |
It’s more… Damn 3 dlc for AoE4 for already a LOT ! But now they go with a 4th one ?
That mean they got enought people to work on content and not loose money.
Game industry is all about money, but sure one game can require more time to make content than aother.
However, if you pay attention to the 4th AoE4 DLC announcement on X, there is no release date, the steam page is already live, but no pre-order timeframe so far. As the 4th is already more than what they announced, all the things they announced so far for the first half of 2026 is published, and they seems to still keep pushing more content ?
They made some big addition to the game since last year, the ps5 version, the mac version, it means more customers, more incomes, more players, but also more bug to fix. They made that big naval rework, showcased in a tournament first, then pushed into the game, with 3 unkown dlc under the hood, which are matching 0 announced informations if you see what I mean.
Two of the three apps, including the Chronicle 3, were added at the same moment, but the other one is way older, stay started to publish things on steamdb in september last year. So they were working on three new apps when they announced the first half of 2026, and it’s on the work for many month.
It’s not really about the average gaps what so ever, it’s about the momentum of their release. Last year I would not have thought a 3rd age of empires 2 dlc in a year was a possibility, but This year specifically… it might be a 3 dlc year. Not saying they’re gonna do that every year, but it’s possible.
Still no update on the dlcs apps, only the main app receiving regular update the past 24 hours.
I understand your argument better now, and I agree that the three unknown apps suggest several AoE2 projects are being developed in parallel. The growth of the franchise, new platforms, more players and more revenue could certainly allow the teams to produce more content than before.
However, I still do not think this proves that all three apps will release in 2026. Parallel development is not the same as parallel release. One of those apps may already be intended for 2027.
The age of the oldest app is not strong evidence either. The Last Chieftains was first seen on SteamDB in September 2024, but it was only released in February 2026, roughly 17 months later. Battle for Greece and The Three Kingdoms also existed on SteamDB for many months before release. Therefore, an app created in September 2025 could easily be a mainline DLC planned for early 2027.
The average release gap is not a strict rule, but it still shows that AoE2 DLCs normally receive several months of marketing, support and attention. If Chronicles 3 releases in September or October, another major DLC in December would create a very crowded schedule.
So I agree that three DLCs in 2026 are possible, but I still think the more likely scenario is Chronicles 3 this autumn and the older mainline project in early 2027. SteamDB confirms that several projects exist, but it does not confirm their release dates or release order.
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It’s possible they work on multiple DLCs in advance in order to better balance their content, while still planning to release one of them next year.
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This is basically my point. Multiple DLCs can be in development at the same time without all of them being scheduled for the same year. Working further in advance would also give them more time to balance the civilizations and coordinate the content.
The three apps show that several projects exist, but they do not prove three releases in 2026. One of them could easily be planned for early 2027.
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I’m aware of “Yue Fei’s Legacy” and “Raiders of the North”, what’s the other two?
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Well indeed it’s not like 3 for the year but they announced, with the last big announcement topic last year 3 dlc instead of the usual 2 we were used to, but they did:
- Knights of Cross and Rose
- Dynasties of the East
- Yue Fei’s Legacy
- Raider of the North (that one is not part of any previously announced batch, that’s why it’s so interesting)
The actual Raiders of the North dlc is part of the yet to be announced batch of things to come. It’s very strange they published the trailer / the steam page, before a big announcement as they did last year.
As you can see here in the “What’s next for 2026” post, where they announced the two dlc infact yes.
I can’t find the post where they bombed an info about AoE4 having one extra dlc than what we would have expected but I may have mismatched infos in my head.
The point is that this announcement was intended for “the first half” of 2026, with the exception of the Viking dlc for AoE4 already scheduled for the Q4 2026.
All the points in this topic, which is “for the first half” were released so far.
On this topic “What’s to come in 2nd Half of 2025” they say bascially the PS5 portage took them a lot of time, while this year mac version is not done by them but by an external company.
There is kind of a momentum increasing in their release scheduling / amoiunt of content per year since 2025 comapred to previous years.
And there is also that hypothetical “hint” in dlc steamdb app names. Alexander was “Peru”, then the Peru-related civs were released with the coendame “Paris”. If Paris is a hint,
The thing that is strange with having a codename Paris, is that it would be more logic to see something centered on France, not as invaded, but as played. I doubt it’s a reference to Trojan prince Paris. But it could just also be a random naming, we’ll see soon.
But remember the main reason why I’m thinking a Viking dlc is coming soon was due to the Naval rework. The addition of the Catapult Galleon, its design, tend to tell me the Vikings will be part of the next thing to drop. When they announced raider of the north without directly giving the pre-order, that led me to think they’re going to push one DLC from another game before this AoE4 dlc release. And with the timing, Chronicles is not the candidate in my opinion, so there is a window of release in August-September for an AoE2 DLC.
The words they used on the last big patch tend to hint they’re working on something “big”, as in, not seen in the game yet, like the elite unique sprites, regional monks/monastery, unique castles, animated sail return, idle-attack graphics, etc. They recently compressed some graphics to earn memory space too, which makes me think they’re plannng on adding a lot of graphic file in the near future.
And there is that Raven Garrison flag. Combine that with the fact they worked on a new architecture for AoE4, with at least one building shared with AoE2 but with a different texturing… That’s a lot of things pointing toward something with the Viking in it.
So if they release Chronicles 3 earlier than their normal publishing window for Chronicles as the next dlc, then a new vanilla one will drop un January, in my opinion.
When devs keep the silent for a long time with hinting “big surprises to come, we can only say ‘stay tuned’…” with litterally nothing to tune on … It generally means: Big thing coming, but too bugged yet to make any promise of date / content.
I’m definitly starving for some teasing images to study pixel per pixel, trying to find some new assets for the dlc to come. Only having the “last update change” from SteamDB is driving me insaaaannnneee (joking I’m just excited to see the next content :D)
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We have to wait for announcment, then we will know for sure.
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They don’t count, since they’re DLCs from last year… there are 2 DLCs per year, just like AoE 2 and AoM…
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Both of us know the game balance/design team very well. 11
They’ll likely announce something for September or October, since November is already reserved for the AoE IV DLC.
The release of TLC in last February and the following development of two unrevealed DLCs at the same time gave me the impression the would release two more DLCs still this year. However, the lack of any news on the next DLC since the release of TLC likely ruled out this possibility, and sounds like we will have only one more DLC this year.
With one of them likely being a Chronicles DLC which is done by a different sub-group, I can still see it but one of them would need to be announced…probably by the end of this month for me to still have hope of that. I could see an August release and then a December release happening.
Yes, we’d see a Chronicles DLC in August, or a Norse DLC for AoE 2 in August (and the AoE 4 Norse DLC in November), and the Chronicles DLC in December… we’d see the AoM DLC at the end of September or the beginning of October…