Crusader Kings III: Silk & Silver Expansion Out November 19 for $29.99

Crusader Kings III (CK3) is Paradox Interactive’s medieval grand-strategy RPG where players run a dynasty across five centuries of European, Middle Eastern, and African history. The publisher confirmed today that Crusader Kings III: Silk & Silver, the game’s next major expansion, launches November 19, 2026 for $29.99 / £25.99 / €29.99. It’s also included in the Chapter V expansion pass.

This is the biggest shake-up to CK3’s core loop since Roads to Power in 2024. Two entirely new government types land at once. The first is a landless Merchant family running a trading company. The second is a Republic government built around patrician houses competing to control cities like Venice and Genoa.

The new mechanics thread through both: over 40 trade goods, Trade Routes, Trade Leagues that bind Republics together commercially and militarily, and Market Lockdown, which lets you leverage political influence to monopolize a single good. A Merchant family is a landless dynasty: the player has no county and no feudal vassals, instead accumulating gold and prestige by completing trade contracts. A Caravaneer is one of three Merchant specializations focused on physically moving bulk goods along routes, a Creditor lends money to rulers at interest, and an Artisan crafts artifacts that other characters will pay to acquire.

A bookmark in CK3 is a fixed historical starting year and scenario, used to drop players into a specific moment with that era’s rulers, borders, and events. Two new bookmarks frame the new content. 1066: Channels of Commerce drops you in as one of the medieval era’s most renowned merchants, building trade networks across a world hungry for spices, silk, and silver. 1178 — Guelphs & Ghibellines plants you in the papal-versus-imperial conflict that defined Northern Italy, with civic carnivals and open faction warfare built in. Republic players get a full Assembly and constitution layer, plus the choice between a seafaring trade power, an expansionist noble house, or a city-state answering to the common folk.

Paradox’s expansion cadence has been steady. Royal Court in 2022 added court intrigue and culture. Tours & Tournaments in 2023 layered in travel, hunts, and grand events. Roads to Power in 2024 introduced the landless Adventurer government that broke CK3’s “must hold a title” rule. Compared with those, Silk & Silver is the most architecturally ambitious: the Merchant government removes the requirement to rule a county, and Republics open up patrician-vs-patrician play that CK3’s feudalism-heavy systems couldn’t really model before. For players holding off on Chapter V, this is the headline reason to keep it. The expansion also arrives the same day as GTA 6’s worldwide unlock on November 19, which puts every Paradox grand-strategy fan in a tough spot for launch-week planning.

No console release date has been announced. CK3’s previous console rollout took roughly a year and a half from PC launch (PC September 2020, console March 2022). PS5 and Xbox Series X|S players should expect a longer wait. The expansion is Windows PC only on day one, and it slots into Pixel Herald’s November 2026 release calendar alongside other November launches like GTA 6 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report