Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[Chiyo]

I think if you look at player numbers you have to put them into perspective with other games as well. Of course the numbers go up a bit when more people have time to play and they go down when fewer people do so. I usually check this page:

Steam Charts - Tracking What's Played

An ongoing analysis of Steam's player numbers, seeing what's been played the most.

steamcharts.com

CIv7 for the last months has regularly been found between number 151 and 175, though at this time of writing it is down to 183. It seems it has found its bottom there and is unlikely to drop fast. If there are improvements to the game it might jump but if it stays like it is now it will only be a slow way down. If beeing the, let's say, 160th most played game after half a year is a success, I do not really know. It does not sound like it, especially as the two predecessor are always ranked way above. But if the people that play it pay enough money even a lower number of players might keep the game alive.

 

[queenpea]

Exactly, though I'm not sure who's been saying that less concurrent players makes the game worse - I think that's an imagined opposing position.

I think people have said it demonstrates it's less popular, which is undeniably true. The bit that tempers it and is arguable is "relative to what". And what we're seeing at the moment from these stats seems to be the game is now less popular relative to when summer holidays were on.

Does that mean anything? I don't know, but I find it interesting, and that's why I'm discussing it. I'm not here to score points or talk about the qualities of the game, as that's not what this thread is about.

End of the day, gaming is a pointless waste of time unless you enjoy it. Same as reviewing these stats, same as participating in this thread. Who are we as civ fanatics to throw stones in our glass houses about what people enjoy spending their time discussing?

It looks like reviews have ticked down again, slightly negative, from when I last checked. We are now at 47.31% on SteamDB.

 

[IntelligentDisk]

What are people's thoughts on external factors which impact Civ 7s release & retention?

• Different release platforms. Civ VI only released on Steam. Civ VII launched on Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, PS4, XSX/S, Xbox One, Switch & is now also available on Switch 2. If you wanted to play Civ VI, you were funnelled into buying it on Steam.
• Different prices. Civ VII is more expensive in general, but far far more expensive in certain big markets. The following have at least 1% of Steam users.

1. China (14.8%) – 36% price increase (from Civ VI)
2. Brazil (5.3%) – 171% price increase
3. Phillppines (2.3%) – 33% price increase
4. Ukraine (2%) – 471% price increase
5. Japan (1.6%) – 26% price increase
6. South Korea (1.5%) – 28% price increase
7. Indonesia (1.4%) – 78% price increase
8. Australia (1.4%) – 33% price increase
9. Mexico (1%) – 99% price increase
10. India (1%) – 60% price increase

Other countries like the USA, Germany, France, UK, Poland as well as others saw 15-20% price increases.

• Different release months. Civ VI released in October, leading into winter and the holiday season. Civ VII released in February, leading into spring and summer.
• Different sales. Civ VI went on sale quicker & had more days on sale in comparison to VII at this point in its life cycle. This will inevitably lead to more sales and make the “player retention” look better.
• More and tougher competition. Civ VI had the 4th highest peak concurrent players out of any game on Steam in 2016. It would be 13th so far in 2025. More competition from within the Civ franchise. V & VI sold more than IV & V which VI had to compete with.

How would Civ 7 perform if it was releasing this October, if it was cheaper, if it was releasing only on Steam and went on sale quicker? I suspect it would perform significantly better.

I also think GTA 6 - which was originally planned for November 2025 before it was delayed in May 2025 to May 2026 - could have brought the release date of Civ 7 forward to February 2025. Both are under the Take-Two umbrella.

 

[Kev1916]

What are people's thoughts on external factors which impact Civ 7s release & retention?

• Different release platforms. I suspect it would perform significantly better.

If Civ Vii was created and released solely as a PC game it would be better , thou the bar is low

A cash driven half finished "mobile" game out to scam buyers, to me, will put 2K as a game publisher on the best ignore list .

 

[bladex1200]

If Civ Vii was created and released solely as a PC game it would be better , thou the bar is low

A cash driven half finished "mobile" game out to scam buyers, to me, will put 2K as a game publisher on the best ignore list .

In terms of quality I agree, but you cannot deny in terms of overall player retention and ability to monetize (with microtransactions, additional DLC, etc) the mobile market is far more lucrative than the PC market. We are difficult to please and spend a lot less money overall (despite spending more per player, there's simply a much, much smaller audience on PC than on mobile devices), so the risk is higher for developing exclusively for the PC market.

 

[itix]

What are people's thoughts on external factors which impact Civ 7s release & retention?

• Different release platforms. Civ VI only released on Steam. Civ VII launched on Steam, Epic Games Store, PS5, PS4, XSX/S, Xbox One, Switch & is now also available on Switch 2. If you wanted to play Civ VI, you were funnelled into buying it on Steam.

I dont think it made a significant difference to Steam player counts. It had record pre-orders and then fell flat. It just didn't fly.

• Different prices. Civ VII is more expensive in general, but far far more expensive in certain big markets. The following have at least 1% of Steam users.

1. China (14.8%) – 36% price increase (from Civ VI)
2. Brazil (5.3%) – 171% price increase
3. Phillppines (2.3%) – 33% price increase
4. Ukraine (2%) – 471% price increase
5. Japan (1.6%) – 26% price increase
6. South Korea (1.5%) – 28% price increase
7. Indonesia (1.4%) – 78% price increase
8. Australia (1.4%) – 33% price increase
9. Mexico (1%) – 99% price increase
10. India (1%) – 60% price increase

Other countries like the USA, Germany, France, UK, Poland as well as others saw 15-20% price increases.

Despite of this they had record pre-oreders.

• More and tougher competition. Civ VI had the 4th highest peak concurrent players out of any game on Steam in 2016. It would be 13th so far in 2025. More competition from within the Civ franchise. V & VI sold more than IV & V which VI had to compete with.

There is more competition but there are also more customers. In 2016, Steam had about 13M active users. Now it is 130M?

I also think GTA 6 - which was originally planned for November 2025 before it was delayed in May 2025 to May 2026 - could have brought the release date of Civ 7 forward to February 2025. Both are under the Take-Two umbrella.

Yes, perhaps it was rushed to avoid overlapping with the GTA6 release. But it had quite long development time, I recall new Civ 7 devs were hired around mid 2022.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

In terms of quality I agree, but you cannot deny in terms of overall player retention and ability to monetize (with microtransactions, additional DLC, etc) the mobile market is far more lucrative than the PC market. We are difficult to please and spend a lot less money overall (despite spending more per player, there's simply a much, much smaller audience on PC than on mobile devices), so the risk is higher for developing exclusively for the PC market.

Every industry wants to maximize the amount of revenue they get from every customer, and the best way to do that is to customize your price to what the customer is willing to pay. That's tricky, though. How do you get customer A to pay $500 without losing customer B who is only willing to pay $250?

As a game publisher, you could:

• Price your game at $500. Good luck.
• Sell your base game for $50 and parcel out 10 years of DLCs.
• Sell your base game for $10 and give players an incentive to pay $1 many, many times while they play.

All of these approaches cause complaints from players, but the third has by far the greatest potential to quickly extract $500 (or more) from players who enjoy the game.

 

[IntelligentDisk]

I dont think it made a significant difference to Steam player counts. It had record pre-orders and then fell flat. It just didn't fly.


Despite of this they had record pre-oreders.



There is more competition but there are also more customers. In 2016, Steam had about 13M active users. Now it is 130M?


Yes, perhaps it was rushed to avoid overlapping with the GTA6 release. But it had quite long development time, I recall new Civ 7 devs were hired around mid 2022.

Why did it have record pre-orders? I think 2 reasons:

1. Availability on PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S on launch.
2. Early access only available if you pre-ordered.

Steam doesn't have 130m active users. According to SteamDB, in February 2025 Steam had 12.9m in-game users on average. In-game numbers weren't available until November 2017, but in that month there were 6.9m in-game users on average. In 2016, there were 4,654 games released. This year, there have been 13,027 games released. That's a 180% increase in the number of games released, but only a 87% increase in the number of in-game users. There is far more competition in 2025 than in 2016.

 

[bumpyglint]

Firaxis just confirmed to have fired many people.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...-somehow-even-worse-than-just-saying-agility/

This italian article can be translated as "Sid Meier's Civilization VII did not save Firaxis: layoffs underway at the studio"

https://multiplayer.it/notizie/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-non-ha-salvato-firaxis-licenziamenti-in-corso-nello-studio.html#:~:text=1-,Sid%20Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%20non%20ha%20salvato%20Firaxis%3A%20licenziamenti%20in,licenziamenti%20in%20corso%20dentro%20Firaxis.&text=Firaxis%2C%20lo%20studio%20di%20sviluppo,Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%2C%20sta%20licenziando.

Another passage --> "Just recently, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, spoke about the results achieved by Sid Meier's Civilization VII, making it clear that they were not positive. It seems that there is a plan to improve the game, but for now, everything is still very unclear. In the meantime, players continue to fiercely criticize certain aspects of the game, such as the Ages system and the interface, despite the updates released over the last few months."



Still there will be someone here saying "this is not a good metric to say if the game is a success or not, Civ V had a worse reception at launch"

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

Firaxis just confirmed to have fired many people.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...-somehow-even-worse-than-just-saying-agility/

This italian article can be translated as "Sid Meier's Civilization VII did not save Firaxis: layoffs underway at the studio"

https://multiplayer.it/notizie/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-non-ha-salvato-firaxis-licenziamenti-in-corso-nello-studio.html#:~:text=1-,Sid%20Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%20non%20ha%20salvato%20Firaxis%3A%20licenziamenti%20in,licenziamenti%20in%20corso%20dentro%20Firaxis.&text=Firaxis%2C%20lo%20studio%20di%20sviluppo,Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%2C%20sta%20licenziando.

Another passage --> "Just recently, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, spoke about the results achieved by Sid Meier's Civilization VII, making it clear that they were not positive. It seems that there is a relaunch plan, but for now, everything is still very unclear. In the meantime, players continue to fiercely criticize certain aspects of the game, such as the Ages system and the interface, despite the updates released over the last few months."



Still there will be someone here saying "this is not a good metric to say if the game is a success or not, Civ V had a worse reception at launch"

To be clear though, he cites no source for this, besides the 2K earnings call quotes about the game having a slow start, so the relaunch stuff appears to be out of thin air

 

[King Flevance]

Another passage --> "Just recently, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, spoke about the results achieved by Sid Meier's Civilization VII, making it clear that they were not positive. It seems that there is a relaunch plan, but for now, everything is still very unclear. In the meantime, players continue to fiercely criticize certain aspects of the game, such as the Ages system and the interface, despite the updates released over the last few months."



Still there will be someone here saying "this is not a good metric to say if the game is a success or not, Civ V had a worse reception at launch"

A relaunch plan means things are BAD behind the scenes. This usually only happens if a game does so poorly they are no longer trying to salvage it, but instead it is time to try and "rebrand" the title to the public.

We may see "classic mode" become the primary game mode. Or some big change of that nature for the relaunch.

Edit: Verified_Confection_Being's comment makes this comment void.

 

[Skojardu]

A relaunch plan means things are BAD behind the scenes. This usually only happens if a game does so poorly they are no longer trying to salvage it, but instead it is time to try and "rebrand" the title to the public.

We may see "classic mode" become the primary game mode. Or some big change of that nature for the relaunch.

I could see it reframed as the "comedy" Civ, like The Room. "Oh hi, civlet!"

*original video was a fan upload

 

[King Flevance]

I could see it reframed as the "comedy" Civ, like The Room.

Oh, Please don't.

 

[bumpyglint]

To be clear though, he cites no source for this, besides the 2K earnings call quotes about the game having a slow start, so the relaunch stuff appears to be out of thin air

Don't know if I translated it in a bad way, "relaunch plan" just mean they are trying to improve the game, that's the message they wanted to pass in italian.

Anyway that's not the main point of this news unluckily


Edit: I edited that translation hoping this would avoid confusion

 

[Haig]

"I did not hit her, I did naaaht... oh hi Gandhi!"

 

[Crashdummy]

Firaxis just confirmed to have fired many people.

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indu...-somehow-even-worse-than-just-saying-agility/

This italian article can be translated as "Sid Meier's Civilization VII did not save Firaxis: layoffs underway at the studio"

https://multiplayer.it/notizie/sid-meiers-civilization-vii-non-ha-salvato-firaxis-licenziamenti-in-corso-nello-studio.html#:~:text=1-,Sid%20Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%20non%20ha%20salvato%20Firaxis%3A%20licenziamenti%20in,licenziamenti%20in%20corso%20dentro%20Firaxis.&text=Firaxis%2C%20lo%20studio%20di%20sviluppo,Meier's%20Civilization%20VII%2C%20sta%20licenziando.

Another passage --> "Just recently, Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, spoke about the results achieved by Sid Meier's Civilization VII, making it clear that they were not positive. It seems that there is a plan to improve the game, but for now, everything is still very unclear. In the meantime, players continue to fiercely criticize certain aspects of the game, such as the Ages system and the interface, despite the updates released over the last few months."



Still there will be someone here saying "this is not a good metric to say if the game is a success or not, Civ V had a worse reception at launch"

I am not surprised with the layoffs. I said this multiple times, Civ VII numbers are not enough to sustain its development, so cutting people was a logical consequence sadly

Its not a good sign that they have still not announced anything that might give players hope for a Classic Mode, theyr lackluster attempts to please people with the continuity mode were a waste of resources that could have been better invested towards a Classic Mode

IMHO, they need to come out and say: "We started work on a Classic Mode, it will take over a year, but we listened to you". That might stop the bleeding

 

[Leucarum]

IMHO, they need to come out and say: "We started work on a Classic Mode, it will take over a year, but we listened to you". That might stop the bleeding

Or just cause people to stop and wait until the version they want is out. Even if they are working on it... It would probably be best to stay quiet about it and try to drum up hype for every incremental change.

 

[itix]

Why did it have record pre-orders? I think 2 reasons:

1. Availability on PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S on launch.
2. Early access only available if you pre-ordered.

3. It is a new Civ game.

Steam doesn't have 130m active users. According to SteamDB, in February 2025 Steam had 12.9m in-game users on average. In-game numbers weren't available until November 2017, but in that month there were 6.9m in-game users on average. In 2016, there were 4,654 games released. This year, there have been 13,027 games released. That's a 180% increase in the number of games released, but only a 87% increase in the number of in-game users. There is far more competition in 2025 than in 2016.

Yeah, could be my number was off. I could not find my source anymore and I tried to use AI to give quick numbers. Seems there is a lot of mismatch with numbers. Steam user count (customers), steam monthly active users and steam concurrent users.

But the fact is that Steam is bigger today than 9 years ago. And more games are published than ever, but the number of AAA has not increased much, if at all. Paradox is now coming from left and right, and it could negatively impact Firaxis' sales. Old World is a very nice game from a small studio but it is not a Civ competitor. CivKind (ahem) games Millenia and Humankind, from bigger studios failed.

 

[Crashdummy]

Or just cause people to stop and wait until the version they want is out. Even if they are working on it... It would probably be best to stay quiet about it and try to drum up hype for every incremental change.

Those of us that want Classic Mode are not currently playing. Continuity option is doing what you suggest and its not working

 

[Leucarum]

Those of us that want Classic Mode are not currently playing. Continuity option is doing what you suggest and its not working

I'd like to see something more akin to a classic mode too...

I just doubt that announcing it would help with interim player numbers. Players could just wait till it was out. There is a financial argument for Firaxis to do it piecemeal, keeping is in the dark... Even if they are doing it at all, which I suspect they probably aren't.