22 December 2025

Total War Game from 2015 is Getting a Big Boost Thanks to a Lord of the Rings Mod

By newsgame

Total War: Attila recently saw a major spike in its player count on Steam, and a new Lord of the Rings total conversion mod seems to be the cause. Total War: Attila originally released all the way back in February 2015, where it received a generally positive reception from critics, with many praising the game’s subtle improvements to the series’ formula while highlighting that it still felt like more of an expansion to Total War: Rome 2 than a fully-fledged new entry.

According to reputable tracker site SteamDB, Total War: Attila has an all-time peak player count of 26,346, which it achieved when it first launched in February 2015. Attila‘s predecessor, Total War: Rome 2, achieved an all-time peak of 118,240 when it first launched in September 2013, and its successor Total War: Warhammer reached 113,019 when it released in May 2016. By comparison, Total War: Attila‘s Steam player count has always been quite a bit lower than the franchise’s biggest entries.

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Total War: Attila Sees Player Spike Following The Release of a Lord of the Rings Mod

But while Total War: Attila has never managed to achieve the player counts of its younger and older siblings, it has just experienced a rather surprising surge in popularity. This surge was first spotted by Reddit user AceOfSpades0319, who posted a screenshot in the Total War subreddit on December 14 that showed an active player count of 11,147 for Total War: Attila, which is the highest active player count the game has had since March 2016. AceOfSpades0319 linked this sudden surge to the release of a Lord of the Rings total conversion mod, which hit Nexus Mods just two days earlier.

Called “The Dawnless Days,” the mod (currently in beta) responsible for Total War: Attila‘s player count spike overhauls Creative Assembly’s strategy game, giving it a major Lord of the Rings makeover by adding new buildings, factions, units, characters, and events inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy world of Middle-earth. As well as a full-sized, custom-made Middle-earth map, The Dawnless Days mod adds a campaign that takes players through The Lord of the Rings‘ War of the Ring, where they choose one of nine factions and embark on an epic journey to either defeat the forces of darkness or lead their reign of terror across Middle-earth.

Total War: Attila‘s player count has dipped a little since AceOfSpades0319’s Reddit post a week ago, but its numbers are still impressive for a 10-year-old game that’s been stuck in the shadow of giants since launch. At the time of writing, Total War: Attila has 8,908 active players according to SteamDB, which is a considerable increase from the game’s 3,216 active players on December 11, the day before The Dawnless Days’ launch.

There’s no way of knowing how long this Total War: Attila surge will last, but there’s a chance it could last just a little while longer given that the game is currently part of the 2025 Steam Winter Sale. Those wanting to try out Total War: Attila‘s Lord of the Rings mod can grab the base game now on Steam for $11.24, down from its retail price of $44.99.

While The Lord of the Rings‘ future in the video game landscape is a little unclear right now following the cancellation of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMORPG back in October, Total War‘s future is looking brighter than ever. During The Game Awards 2025, Sega and Creative Assembly announced Total War: Warhammer 40,000, another ambitious strategy game using Games Workshop’s Warhammer IP, this time based on the grimdark future of Warhammer 40K rather than the fantasy portion of the franchise used in the Total War: Warhammer trilogy.