Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[KayAU]

Personally I don't think using Steam reviews as a requirement for buying the game is that effective when there are so many resources availble such as lets plays and gameplay videos available on youtube.

Yeah, fair enough. It's not the only thing I go by, and there are clearly examples of games which are below 70% on Steam, which I still really enjoy. The actual requirement is a bit fluffier, I will buy the game when I believe it is good, and it is a decent value for money. Recent Steam reviews are decent indicator, though.

One thing which could accelerate my decision, would be a free weekend, preferably combined with a sale, like Ara is doing right now. Then I could try it out and get a feel for it myself.

With regards to Civ 7 being dead, I think it is clearly not. It is underperforming expectations, for sure, but its player numbers are still a lot higher than most other games in the genre, and it is continually developed. The most successful Civ-likes out there are still a long way off 4-5k concurrent players.

 

[itix]

Good ratings tend to help with sales, but they are not the only driving factor. Civ 6 is a slow seller, but whenever it is on sale, it is selling 50-100k copies in a week. Good ratings probably help there, but when it is not on sale, almost nobody is buying the game and it doesn't matter if the rating is 0% or 100%.

 

[UWHabs]

Good ratings tend to help with sales, but they are not the only driving factor. Civ 6 is a slow seller, but whenever it is on sale, it is selling 50-100k copies in a week. Good ratings probably help there, but when it is not on sale, almost nobody is buying the game and it doesn't matter if the rating is 0% or 100%.

Once you know a game has been on sale, it's hard to justify paying the higher price on it. Like I know civ 7 has been sold up to like 30% off recently, if I was thinking of buying it or buying it for a friend, I'd want to wait until it's on sale at or close to that.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Once you know a game has been on sale, it's hard to justify paying the higher price on it. Like I know civ 7 has been sold up to like 30% off recently, if I was thinking of buying it or buying it for a friend, I'd want to wait until it's on sale at or close to that.

There are a lot different situations. For example, that's your friend's birthday and you look at his wishlist on Steam, you normally don't care if those games were and will be on sale at some point.

 

[Ornen]

Is that why people spend 300 pages discussing whether or not a minor increase in reviews constitutes a healthy game?

no, many of us are a little pooched in the head and place an outsize importance on the health of the series, and I will be the first to put my name forward

 

[IntelligentDisk]

November is over and it was the best reviewed calendar month yet at 65.4% positive.

• November: 65.4% positive (1,687 reviews)
• October: 48% positive (1,043 total reviews)
• September: 38.4% positive (870 reviews)
• August: 36.9% positive (1,386 reviews)
• July: 40.6% positive (1,293 reviews)
• June: 27.5% positive (1,928 reviews)
• May: 33.5% positive (1,770 reviews)
• April: 41.6% positive (1,912 reviews)
• March: 43.2% positive (5,583 reviews)
• February: 50.9% positive (32,635 reviews)

We've also seen the first 2-week period over 70% positive (70.2%, 920 reviews, November 17th - November 30th).

Average peak concurrent players for November were the highest since April at 10,204. 14-16% higher than June, July, August & October. 35% higher than September. 0.2% higher than May.

Average concurrent players for November were the highest since May at 7,776. 11-17% higher than June, July, August & October. 35% higher than September. 2% lower than May.

 

[tman2000]

It's not really that much better than it was. Most of the fixes are superficial "we hear you, Carol"

The low number of actual reviews, given the low sales, kind of implies a little milking, wouldn't you say? It could also be people who purchased, waited to review on the premise that it might be improved, consider the latest free DLC drop and sum patches to constitute "effort" and for the sake of morale decided to finally review and in the positive. People who wanted to give the franchise positive reviews but waited until they felt justified in doing so, anticipating improvements? It's not that large of a number of reviews.

I also have to clarify the discourse here.

Are we saying that the game is getting better, which is the cause of better reviews and hoped for increased sales?

Or are we arguing that better reviews will causally create a trend as "attitudes change" and lead to more sales?

Because we're either rooting for the game to succeed at all costs, or we're rooting for it to actually become better.

I did a Tonga/Pirates run. Lots of crashes this time - that's new. I stalled out in my Exploration era again. I can get endless Cogs but I can't produce enough sloops to support them. The enemy just produces a new Cog in every settlement, almost every turn. I don't know how that's possible when I'm struggling to produce a sloop in 15 turns. It just ends up ruining the one area of advantage I have as the Pirates, and the one place where I was focusing my strategy. Leaving me back with Civ 7's pointless little yield and adjacency benefits. It's just not a fun game. There are still bugs, continuity is weird. AI is still poor but makes up for it by cheating, but the cheating breaks depending on game settings. And it's just not fun. I don't even know why anymore. I can't do it with this game anymore. I don't think major changes are coming and I can't find the fun in this game. I'm sad.

 

[aelf]

It's just not a fun game. There are still bugs, continuity is weird. AI is still poor but makes up for it by cheating, but the cheating breaks depending on game settings. And it's just not fun. I don't even know why anymore. I can't do it with this game anymore. I don't think major changes are coming and I can't find the fun in this game. I'm sad.

There, there... You're allowed to move on. The first step is acceptance and to stop revisiting bad memories. I see a lot of people recommending Old World instead. Might want to check it out.

 

[MutilationWave]

If your settlements are producing sloops in 15 turns, you have worse problems with your empire than your navy. I'd recommend playing more antiquity, it's the best part of the game after all. Did you even look at the stats on sloops? They're garbage compared to even cogs. They have a good benefit but need to be supported.

Crashes do not seem common outside of mod conflicts. I wonder what's causing that?

 

[UWHabs]

If your settlements are producing sloops in 15 turns, you have worse problems with your empire than your navy. I'd recommend playing more antiquity, it's the best part of the game after all. Did you even look at the stats on sloops? They're garbage compared to even cogs. They have a good benefit but need to be supported.

Crashes do not seem common outside of mod conflicts. I wonder what's causing that?

It sounds like something else is interacting. Because I just finished a Pirates game, and had trouble not 1-turning my boats. You have a card that gives you +50% production on boats for every naval commander you have, and that chains because I think it also gives production to naval commanders. I think I ended up with many 6 buccaneers over the age, which would have added like +300% production to my sloops. I basically loaded up my commander with sloops, dropped them off, let them each take a shot at opponents, and then load them back up into the commanders so they're never sitting out in the open.

 

[Leucarum]

Are we saying that the game is getting better, which is the cause of better reviews and hoped for increased sales?

Getting better can still mean it ian't good yet. And I think it is getting better psrsonally. And I want it to keep getting better.

i do worry that the game's deaign choices had some unintended consequences that are pretty fundamental problems. But Firaxis are tackling civ switching and have legacy paths on their radar ao they are clearly willing to try and address fundamental issues.

 

[IntelligentDisk]

The low number of actual reviews, given the low sales, kind of implies a little milking, wouldn't you say? It could also be people who purchased, waited to review on the premise that it might be improved, consider the latest free DLC drop and sum patches to constitute "effort" and for the sake of morale decided to finally review and in the positive. People who wanted to give the franchise positive reviews but waited until they felt justified in doing so, anticipating improvements? It's not that large of a number of reviews.

It's 3.4% of all reviews. A small % of total reviews but not exactly something to just be ignored. The most recent 5% of reviews goes back almost 2 months (57 days) and is 61% positive. These are reviewing the most up to date versions of the game. 67% of all reviews came before the first 1.1 update on March 4th almost 9 months ago. 84% of total reviews came before June 1st and are thus 6 months out of date. 93% of total reviews came before September 1st and are thus 3 months out of date. Since 1.2.5 reviews have been 59% positive and since 1.3 reviews have been 66% positive. It's odd you're trying to discredit newer reviews.

I also have to clarify the discourse here.

Are we saying that the game is getting better, which is the cause of better reviews and hoped for increased sales?

Or are we arguing that better reviews will causally create a trend as "attitudes change" and lead to more sales?

Because we're either rooting for the game to succeed at all costs, or we're rooting for it to actually become better.

I'm saying the game has gotten better and is resulting in better reviews.

I don't really care about sales. I think it's inevitable Civ players will continue to buy Civ VII over the next several years resulting in the player base growing, especially as bigger discounts, more updates & expansions release.

 

[aieeegrunt]

It's 3.4% of all reviews. A small % of total reviews but not exactly something to just be ignored. The most recent 5% of reviews goes back almost 2 months (57 days) and is 61% positive. These are reviewing the most up to date versions of the game. 67% of all reviews came before the first 1.1 update on March 4th almost 9 months ago. 84% of total reviews came before June 1st and are thus 6 months out of date. 93% of total reviews came before September 1st and are thus 3 months out of date. Since 1.2.5 reviews have been 59% positive and since 1.3 reviews have been 66% positive. It's odd you're trying to discredit newer reviews.

I'm saying the game has gotten better and is resulting in better reviews.

I don't really care about sales. I think it's inevitable Civ players will continue to buy Civ VII over the next several years resulting in the player base growing, especially as bigger discounts, more updates & expansions release.

I mean what other reason for better reviews is there other than the game got better?

 

[queenpea]

I mean what other reason for better reviews is there other than the game got better

Reviews were trending steadily negative (by which I mean the game's overall review score was trending downwards until we hit a nadir at 47.14% overall positive), despite a number of patches, until the latest update, which included free (for now) content. The game now stands at 47.83% positive, and there is no reason to believe this trend will reverse as we have a second drop of free content coming soon.

None of the previous patches have managed to achieve this, and it seems to me that it was the addition of the free content that has resulted in a flood of positive reviews.

 

[IntelligentDisk]

I mean what other reason for better reviews is there other than the game got better?

I suppose there could be some kind of psychological impact from social media. Generally I think there has been more positivity around Civ VII in the past couple of months on social media. Positivity breeds positivity, negativity breeds negativity. The catalyst for any positivity or negativity would be the state of the game and improvements though.

Reviews were trending steadily negative (by which I mean the game's overall review score was trending downwards until we hit a peak at 47.14% overall positive), despite a number of patches, until the latest update, which included free (for now) content. The game now stands at 47.83% positive, and there is no reason to believe this trend will reverse as we have a second drop of free content coming soon.

None of the previous patches have managed to achieve this, and it seems to me that it was the addition of the free content that has resulted in a flood of positive reviews.

The flood of positive reviews (and biggest gain in the overall figure) has mainly come in the past week thanks to the Steam Award nomination week. The past week had 533 positive reviews, the other 3 weeks after 1.3 saw 274 positive reviews, 156 positive reviews & 142 positive reviews.

The past week saw the overall rating go from 47.34 to 47.74 (+0.4), whereas the previous 3 weeks saw it go from 47.1 to 4.34 (+0.24). It shows 47.83 but if you hover over that rating it shows 47.74, which is the true value. They use a different formula to calculate the 47.83 which isn't simply (positive reviews/total reviews) * 100.

1.3 was seeing the best ratings even before this nomination week but the start of this significant upwards trend began with 1.2.5 which ended with the highest positive % over a 4-week period. The purple line is when the Steam Awards nomination week started. The positive % of recent reviews will almost certainly start to fall now that the nomination week is over. The free Civs & Leader has definitely helped but so has everything else in the past 2 updates (and the other updates), as well as the announcements of the Firaxis Feature Workshop, "one Civ" mode & reworked Legacy Paths.

 

[queenpea]

I suppose there could be some kind of psychological impact from social media. Generally I think there has been more positivity around Civ VII in the past couple of months on social media. Positivity breeds positivity, negativity breeds negativity. The catalyst for any positivity or negativity would be the state of the game and improvements though.


The flood of positive reviews (and biggest gain in the overall figure) has mainly come in the past week thanks to the Steam Award nomination week. The past week had 533 positive reviews, the other 3 weeks after 1.3 saw 274 positive reviews, 156 positive reviews & 142 positive reviews.

The past week saw the overall rating go from 47.34 to 47.74 (+0.4), whereas the previous 3 weeks saw it go from 47.1 to 4.34 (+0.24). It shows 47.83 but if you hover over that rating it shows 47.74, which is the true value. They use a different formula to calculate the 47.83 which isn't simply (positive reviews/total reviews) * 100.

1.3 was seeing the best ratings even before this nomination week but the start of this significant upwards trend began with 1.2.5 which ended with the highest positive % over a 4-week period. The purple line is when the Steam Awards nomination week started. The positive % of recent reviews will almost certainly start to fall now that the nomination week is over. The free Civs & Leader has definitely helped but so has everything else in the past 2 updates (and the other updates), as well as the announcements of the Firaxis Feature Workshop, "one Civ" mode & reworked Legacy Paths.

View attachment 749203

Free content surely has more consequence than the unlikely chance of winning a Steam award?

I am not arguing that the game has not been improving with the ongoing patches. I just do believe that in terms of player reception (steam score) that free content is the best medicine against negative attitudes towards the game.

 

[Kwami]

Free content surely has more consequence than the unlikely chance of winning a Steam award?

You can get a Steam badge for writing a review of a game that you nominated. For some reason, people like Steam badges. The awards are probably somewhat less important.

 

[IntelligentDisk]

Free content surely has more consequence than the unlikely chance of winning a Steam award?

I am not arguing that the game has not been improving with the ongoing patches. I just do believe that in terms of player reception (steam score) that free content is the best medicine against negative attitudes towards the game.

The Steam Award nomination week is 100% the reason why the past 7 days have seen a spike in positive reviews. Other games from this year have also seen a spike over the past 7 days like Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, Endless Legend II, EUV. It's the same reason why Civ VI always saw spikes at the end of November in its first few years. It doesn't make sense why the free content would start having a bigger impact 3 weeks after it was available. I agree the free content definitely goes a long way at trying to "repair" the attitude towards Civ VII.

 

[PlatinumPoster]

Free content surely has more consequence than the unlikely chance of winning a Steam award?

I am not arguing that the game has not been improving with the ongoing patches. I just do believe that in terms of player reception (steam score) that free content is the best medicine against negative attitudes towards the game.

In addition to what IntelligentDisk said, you cant isolate the free content from the other updates. All of them contribute to it, and yes the free content likely would have a high weighting in that, but if it was just the free content and no updates I doubt we would see the same uplift.

The uplift in the past 7 days is due to the Steam Awards

 

[queenpea]

The Steam Award nomination week is 100% the reason why the past 7 days have seen a spike in positive reviews. Other games from this year have also seen a spike over the past 7 days like Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders, Endless Legend II, EUV. It's the same reason why Civ VI always saw spikes at the end of November in its first few years. It doesn't make sense why the free content would start having a bigger impact 3 weeks after it was available. I agree the free content definitely goes a long way at trying to "repair" the attitude towards Civ VII.

Ah ok, I was talking more about recent weeks than the past seven days. So the Steam Awards kind of inflate positive reviews across the board then?