Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 will probably go down as one of the biggest snubs of the 2025 award show season. Alas, it was competing against Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in most of its categories, something that no game could topple.
However, much like Clair Obscur, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has a huge and very dedicated fanbase. That fanbase isn’t just playing the game either, but engaging with the story through fan work, particularly fanfiction – so much so that it was one of the most popular pieces of media on AO3 last year.
Czech President Boasts About Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 In His New Year’s Address
KCD2 receives some much deserved praise from Czech president, Petr pavel.
Two different studies into fanfiction stats on AO3 have Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in the top 100 most popular categories on the site last year. In both instances, the only pairing to make the top 100 from the game was, to no surprise, the relationship between Henry and Hans.
Henry And Hans From Kingdom Come: Deliverance Were Very Popular On AO3 Last Year
The first list was put together by AO3 user centreoftheselights. This method of analysing the release of fanfic in 2025 puts Hans/Henry as the 41st most popular ship of the year.
However, there are some issues with this methodology. For instance, the listing suggests that there were no Hans/Henry fics before 2025, but that is not the case. In fact, fics were being written about the pair since the first game launched, although the vast majority were written and published after the sequel dropped.
An alternative list, put together by Reddit user Agamar13, puts Hans/Henry in 75th place, just under One Direction fanfiction. That is a sentence I never thought I would write.
Ironically, this means that the thing that gives Kingdom Come: Deliverance a lot of its staying power is the very thing that attracted the most controversy (from a certain crowd that gets upset about everything) at launch. Back then, the devs were having to defend the inclusion of a gay romance option in the long-awaited sequel, but it looks like most players either didn’t mind or were very enthusiastic about the prospect of smooching Hans.
Elsewhere on the list, League of Legends is the biggest winner, nabbing both first and third place thanks to Arcane. Here, the most popular ships are Jayce/Viktor and Caitlyn/Vi, respectively (both are bumped down to second and seventh on the alternative list).
- Released
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February 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
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Warhorse Studios
