They'll certainly have lost some. I know when civ 5 released, I was really excited for it, but after a little bit, it was just in such bad shape that I had to put it aside, But there was enough interesting new stuff that I had trouble going back to playing civ 4 again, so yeah, ended up flipping away and playing other stuff. Certainly wouldn't surprise me if a portion of the civ 5/6 fanbase end up similar - you see a few interesting pieces in 7, but you don't like the package as a whole. And you just lose interest to go back and playing 6 or the earlier versions for a variety of reasons. Maybe they fix up enough to bring you back and become a hardcore again, maybe you realize that you can have a life outside of civ, or maybe they bring you back for bits and pieces.
Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread
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They'll certainly have lost some. I know when civ 5 released, I was really excited for it, but after a little bit, it was just in such bad shape that I had to put it aside, But there was enough interesting new stuff that I had trouble going back to playing civ 4 again, so yeah, ended up flipping away and playing other stuff. Certainly wouldn't surprise me if a portion of the civ 5/6 fanbase end up similar - you see a few interesting pieces in 7, but you don't like the package as a whole. And you just lose interest to go back and playing 6 or the earlier versions for a variety of reasons. Maybe they fix up enough to bring you back and become a hardcore again, maybe you realize that you can have a life outside of civ, or maybe they bring you back for bits and pieces.
stealth_nsk
Deity
We clearly see the drop in player number, those are numbers. The drop is timed soon after Civ7 release, so we could more or less safely guess they are connected. So, it's not search for evidence of the the exodus it's question whether they moved to consoles or stopped playing and in which proportion. Since we have evidence of players moving to consoles, but don't have evidence of players stopping playing Civilization, we could suppose most of them moved to consoles.
So, in short, if you challenge the version of exodus to consoles, you need to back some other exodus version to explain the numbers.
As above - we see no evidence for it and timing with Civ7 supposes decrease in number is connected with Civ7. The number was pretty stable before and even releases of competitors like Ara didn't affect it significantly.
Also, I don't see this exodus to consoles theory as proven. It's just highly possible based on evidence and fits the rest of the info we have on consoles.
queenpea
Emperor
We have anecdotal data of both people playing on console and people who have stopped playing Civ.
Just because you suspect that a large, numerically significant amount of players have moved to console doesn’t mean that I have to provide evidence against your assumption. We haven’t seen any real positive indicators that the game has been successful at drawing large numbers of console players.
The Switch 2 version, for example, has not been listed among top selling games for that platform. I don’t recall there being great PS5 sales (if I’m wrong, please correct me), and PS5 reviews are also mixed to negative.
If there had been huge console sales, I think this would have been stressed during the earnings call. Instead, Civ VII was barely mentioned.
I would like to also point out that, at launch, priority was given to patching the PC version of the game over consoles, suggesting or confirming that this is still the largest and most important player base for VII.
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Sephi
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The current voodoo math is:
Civ series got 3 million sales in first quarter (take 2 report)
Civ series got about 1 million sales on steam (estimation based on number of new reviews)
So the difference of 2 million is probably sales of civ7 on consoles and other platforms/stores. All these numbers are not very precise and there are different theories to make sense of the numbers but the chief at take two who considers video games a waste of his personal time loves civ7 so it must have made him a lot of money.
TylertheDestroyer
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Again, are you seriously implying that Firaxis set out to have ten thousand less player on average playing VII than Civ V a month or so after launch? Of course, Firaxis is lookng at the number of simultaneous players, they want active playerbase so they can sell them DLC.
Also where are all these hypothetical console players? The game is no where to be found in the list of top sold and downloaded games on these consoles and almost all metrics of engagement (number of reviews for example) that can be found point to consoles having a small fraction of the players.
We have plenty of information to make an educated assumption that the game did not do anywhere near as well as Firaxis and 2k hoped
1. This UK list was physical only, most people are not buying physical and many games are not sold physically anymore... and it only topped this list once at release. Yeah sure if I play with imaginary numbers you can make them say what you want to them but this list is almost useless in the context of this conversation.
2. Estimations are estimates and still most estimates put VII's numbers below VI's sales.
3. What....? In what world do you think most Civ players have moved to consoles?
4. 2025 has had almost no real competition as far as AAA releases go this year and it's still Civ was outpreformed by AA titles like Kingdom Come
6. No we don't after launch and again, Civ had no real competition at it's release. It should be on the top of these lists still but it isn't.
None of these are proof at all. it's just grasping at straws and straight making up numbers...
Where on earth are you pulling out estimates that have Civ 7 selling 2 million and half of those are not on PC? Even most game analytic sites still put its sales at only around 1 million. (Civ VII sold 1 million in its first two weeks on PC alone)
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TylertheDestroyer
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What? People stop playing games all the time. Also this is not how arguments work btw. It's not our jobs to challenge your unsupported claim
We have no reason to assume that any drop in players is due to a large scale exodus of players to consoles. That's just faulty logic and again a quick glance at the engagement metrics (number of reviews, review score, number of downloads, etc) show that Civ most likely is not thriving on consoles either.
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Trav'ling Canuck
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Civ series got 3 million sales in first quarter is correct.
Civ 7 got about 1 million sales on steam is a reasonable estimate from number of reviews.
The difference of 2 million is a combination of sales of Civ 3, Civ 4, Civ 5, Civ 6 and their DLCs, all of which were on sales during that fiscal quarter, plus sales of Civ 5, Civ 6 and Civ 7 on consoles. fyi a "unit" of sales for the Civ series has in the past been associated with base games and major expansions, so someone buying the Civ 3 complete edition on Steam during the quarter was likely counted as 4 units of sale.
stealth_nsk
Deity
As far as I know, Civ7 doesn't have Switch 2 version yet, only S2 upgrade for version for first Switch. I guess they'll make a specific S2 version with the new patch.
That's exactly the point. We see that before Civ7 release the number was more or less unchangeable, meaning that people returning to those games were as common as people stopping playing. Now, why do you think that at Civ7 release much more people than before would suddenly stop playing civ games?
P.S. I've read all the other answers as well, but since they reiterate things already answered, I don't want to create another bogging thread walking in circles.
TylertheDestroyer
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Again your theory is completely unsupported by reality. As already explained, these hypothetical people could've been waiting for Civ VII and upon its disastorous release just dropped the series entirely, also games naturally lose players. There is no reason to assume there was some secret mass exodus to consoles and all these missing players are now happy on their Playstation and Switches... literally nothing supports this conclusion
The quickest nail in the coffin for this theory of yours that there are secretly hundreds of thousands of happy players playing Civ on consoles is to just look at the vast difference in numbers on the game's store pages on steam and consoles
Where are all these hypothetical console players!?
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queenpea
Emperor
This is irrelevant as other Switch 2 upgrades are listed in top Switch 2 games by multiple outlets.
stealth_nsk
Deity
I was looking at Nintendo shop here: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/g...Nintendo+Switch+2&f=corePlatforms&sort=df&p=0
I believe it lists only Switch 2 games and other lists I've seen online were linked there.
queenpea
Emperor
Here are two quick sources -- will be curious to find more. They differ a bit both neither mentions Civ and both include upgrade packs.
- Mario Kart World
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom (Upgrade Pack)
- Fantasy Life: The Girl Who Steals Time
- Deltarune
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Upgrade Pack)
- Welcome Tour
- No Man's Sky
- Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster
- Street Fighter 6
Here Are The Switch 2's Best-Selling Games So Far
After a full day on the market, the Nintendo Switch 2's best-sellers list is topped by titles including Mario Kart World, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and even Cyberpunk 2077.
www.gamespot.com
15. Yakuza 0 Director's Cut
14. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
13. Hogwarts Legacy
12. Split Fiction
11. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
10. Fast Fusion
9. Street Fighter 6 Years 1-2 Fighters Edition
8. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
7. Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster
6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack
5. Deltarune
4. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
3. Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack
1. Mario Kart World
TylertheDestroyer
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Several of these titles could be upgraded from their Switch 1 version. The upgrade is counted among purchases and downloads as far as I'm aware.
Which is besides the point that Civilization VII is no where to be found on the list of best selling Switch 1 titles either
j51
Blue Star Cadet
I’m a big fan of Civ 7 but I agree with the naysayers here mostly. Things don’t look great at the moment. The drop off in players of all civ games is telling. It could very well be people that played 7 when it came out and decided it needs more work, but at the same time new QoL features (like commanders, no workers, better graphics, etc.) make it hard for them to go back to earlier iterations.
That’s what I did with 5. At release not only did it introduce a huge change (1 unit per tile), but it also lacked some features that Civ 4 introduced at its beginning (namely religion). It felt scaled back. So I played vanilla Civ 5 for like a month and then I waited. But I couldn’t play 4 anymore, because as much as I loved it I had now tasted what things could be like without stacks of doom. And G&K eventually came and it re-added religion and did a bunch of other cool stuff and then I played Civ 5 for a looooooong time.
Now I like 7 more than 6 already, but it makes perfect sense that others would have a similar issue to what I had with 5 at first. So firaxis is going to really have to listen and play test and release a first expansion that opens the game up to people on the fence the way Gods and Kings did for 5.
That’s what I did with 5. At release not only did it introduce a huge change (1 unit per tile), but it also lacked some features that Civ 4 introduced at its beginning (namely religion). It felt scaled back. So I played vanilla Civ 5 for like a month and then I waited. But I couldn’t play 4 anymore, because as much as I loved it I had now tasted what things could be like without stacks of doom. And G&K eventually came and it re-added religion and did a bunch of other cool stuff and then I played Civ 5 for a looooooong time.
Now I like 7 more than 6 already, but it makes perfect sense that others would have a similar issue to what I had with 5 at first. So firaxis is going to really have to listen and play test and release a first expansion that opens the game up to people on the fence the way Gods and Kings did for 5.
I don't know sales figures for swith 2 but some may have switched from PC to it, due to lifestyle changes that made it more attractive than PC.
queenpea
Emperor
Yes, I just don’t think a large number.
Personally i have seen enough now to believe that the game sold well initially but that it was not very well received and that the number of people engaged has dropped dramatically. I dont believe that the drop off is similar to that experienced with previous iterations.
The next patch looks a big one, and has a whiff of 'make or break' to me personally. I think delaying it to try to make it as bug free as possible is a smart move.
The next patch looks a big one, and has a whiff of 'make or break' to me personally. I think delaying it to try to make it as bug free as possible is a smart move.
This feels like a critique of the metric not of the game. Like be realistic, do you actually think Civ7 is less popular than Revolution right now?
Sephi
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Yeah, that's one of the different interpretations I was talking about. Civ3- civ5 did not sell much but Civ6 sold about 240k. But maybe they count it as 1 million sales because they like numbers to go big. who knows.
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