Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[queenpea]

I do think 7 does the best job of combat in a Civ game. It really promotes a mixed arms approach... But that approach gets very very tedious when combat takes place over a large scale, as tends to happen on deity since you're often relying on multiple interconnected parts bringing down specific targets... Hence best combat yet, but it gets tedious at higher difficulties.

I wish someone could explain to me why we have three variants on the airplane commander. I mean I "get it," but I don't get it.

 

[CliffCo]

I thought the "not finishing" problem was related to snowballing -- once you hit the mid-game, it becomes clear who the winner will be, so why bother finishing the play-through? This is combined with a popular consensus that the late game is boring, requires a lot of micromanagement and moving around of units and is generally slower than the early game. All of this combined creates a strong bias for players to quit at the end of the game to start a new (and more exciting) game.

In Civ6 unless it was very obvious that i was going to lose early game i always finished all my games as I wanted my stats recorded in the hall of fame so i could refer back to them. I can't understand why they did away with it in favor or the current system, if anything they should have included it alongside the current system, not done away with it totally.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Well, it depends which year we are talking about. Civ 6 has enjoyed heavy discounts, so it's really hard for me to say how many of the three million units we can assume should be counted for VII. Also, how do we count expansion packs? Do these count as Civilization units?

I don't know the exact year, and yes it includes expansion pack. But as I said, it was significantly after last Civ6 expansion.

Sure, some Civ6 sales are there and Civ5 too, but it needs some research to get to particular numbers.

Anyway, since even after research, the number will not be a hard proof, I just keep it as a hint.

The ranking is a bit deceptive. It's ranked on dollar sales, so a more expensive product is weighted higher - and civ7 was quite expensive if you wanted early access and DLC - founders edition at 130$. $70+$30DLC is still a lot for that broken mess. The only thing I get from this chart, is that it had a high revenue compared to other games, but it's trending down from 7 to 8. Civ7 couldn't outperform other new games - only old games.

If, for some reason, you want to measure popularity, the number would be deceptive. But if we speak about the game success, the money are exactly the right metric to use.

 

[Kev1916]

Well, it depends which year we are talking about. Civ 6 has enjoyed heavy discounts, so it's really hard for me to say how many of the three million units we can assume should be counted for VII. Also, how do we count expansion packs? Do these count as Civilization units?

Civ 6 had two sales and appeared in Steams top best 100 sellers unlike civ 7.

2 million + for Civs 4-6 the change goes to civ 7

 

[Kev1916]

I

The ranking is a bit deceptive. It's ranked on dollar sales, so a more expensive product is weighted higher - and civ7 was quite expensive

Also

There are some key caveats to be aware of. This list includes physical and digital sales data, but NOT from every publisher. For example, Nintendo does not share digital sales data. Also of note is that the list is ranked on Dollar sales, NOT unit sales. The list also does NOT include revenue from sales of any add-ons for games, NOR does it account for popularity on a service like Game Pass.

The reporting period below covers January 5, 2025 through April 5, 2025......
It’s US only

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

They told the number of total Civilization units sold, which is 3M higher than previous number stated a couple years before. So yes, it takes some amount of older games as well, but I doubt it's that many of them, since the previous number was provided long after all Civ6 expansions came out, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, even if we assume previous games took 1M of this number (which I strongly doubt), this still leaves 2M for Civ7.

I agree older copies probably aren't a large portion of the total Civ units sold during the period, but both Civ 3 and the Civ 4 collection were on sale during the period. I know because I picked up both of them for convenience, since I didn't previously have them through Steam. So that counts as 4 to 6 of the 3M total, depending on how many units they consider Civ 3 Complete to be.

I believe that each Founder's Edition counts as 2 towards the unit numbers, since it included both the base game and first main expansion, and I think they count expansion sales as "units" in their historical unit sales numbers.

Lots of unknowns in how the 3 million was tallied. As a % increase it was 3M over 71M previously, I think, so a 4.2% increase in total compared to the prior reporting period.

 

[Gori the Grey]

So that counts as 4 to 6 of the 3M total

Keep up the good work, TC!

 

[queenpea]

I agree older copies probably aren't a large portion of the total Civ units sold during the period, but both Civ 3 and the Civ 4 collection were on sale during the period. I know because I picked up both of them for convenience, since I didn't previously have them through Steam. So that counts as 4 to 6 of the 3M total, depending on how many units they consider Civ 3 Complete to be.

I believe that each Founder's Edition counts as 2 towards the unit numbers, since it included both the base game and first main expansion, and I think they count expansion sales as "units" in their historical unit sales numbers.

Lots of unknowns in how the 3 million was tallied. As a % increase it was 3M over 71M previously, I think, so a 4.2% increase in total compared to the prior reporting period.

Is a Leader Persona kit also a "unit"?

 

[AD1730]

Is a Leader Persona kit also a "unit"?

And, to piggyback off of this, if you buy an edition of the game that comes with multiple DLC, do they count that as 2, 3, 4, etc. units?

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think some time ago someone did calculations about how 2K comes to those numbers and it turned out they count full expansions as separate units, but not lesser DLCs.

If it's still the case, Founder's edition counts as one (happy Gimli noises).

 

[Siptah]

And, to piggyback off of this, if you buy an edition of the game that comes with multiple DLC, do they count that as 2, 3, 4, etc. units?

In the past, only base game and expansions were counted as copies. Not civ or map packs. But this is only sure for up until civ V. Yet, the 70m suggest that they didn‘t count the smaller DLCs for civ VI, and also not the new frontier or leader passes. But yes, if you buy civ V complete, it would have counted as 3 copies in the 2010s.

 

[Askia Muhammad]

I think some time ago someone did calculations about how 2K comes to those numbers and it turned out they count full expansions as separate units, but not lesser DLCs.

If it's still the case, Founder's edition counts as one (happy Gimli noises).

Do they count the first DLC as a separate sale ?

 

[reddishrecue]

Do they count the first DLC as a separate sale ?

You mean when Carthage and Great Britain were introduced? That was free.

 

[UWHabs]

I

Also

There are some key caveats to be aware of. This list includes physical and digital sales data, but NOT from every publisher. For example, Nintendo does not share digital sales data. Also of note is that the list is ranked on Dollar sales, NOT unit sales. The list also does NOT include revenue from sales of any add-ons for games, NOR does it account for popularity on a service like Game Pass.

The reporting period below covers January 5, 2025 through April 5, 2025......
It’s US only

It at least shows that they're probably not going bankrupt immediately from the sales numbers. Sure, maybe the total copies are not there like other years, and obviously player counts are lower. But it came in at a high price-tag. To me, at least, that probably means that the game studio isn't going to fold from the launch, but it's still an uphill climb to get the player counts and reaction up.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, I watched a new youtube video (iirc zero-day) and there it was claimed that the concurrent players for Civ7 are now considerably fewer than for Civ5 (and Civ6).

 

[Kev1916]

Hm, I watched a new youtube video (iirc zero-day) and there it was claimed that the concurrent players for Civ7 are now considerably fewer than for Civ5 (and Civ6).

Been like that for ages about 15-20% of all players playing Civ5-7 are playing Civ 7

 

[queenpea]

Hm, I watched a new youtube video (iirc zero-day) and there it was claimed that the concurrent players for Civ7 are now considerably fewer than for Civ5 (and Civ6).

Player counts have been this way for some time.

Opinion is split here regarding whether or not the situation is normal and Firaxis’ view is that there is “nothing to see here, business as usual,” or if the launch has gone worse than expected and changes will be made somehow/somewhere.

Firaxis has made no comment on the question and a recent Take Two earnings call was inconclusive.

So, we don’t know.

 

[Gori the Grey]

and a recent Take Two earnings call was inconclusive.

or spoke volumes by its silence.

 

[queenpea]

or spoke volumes by its silence.

I was only trying to be neutral so I am not once again tarred and feathered for hyperbole.

 

[stealth_nsk]

or spoke volumes by its silence.

I don't think it was any different from previous earnings calls.