Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[SemiLazyGamer]

Circana June 2025: Civ VII was the 12th best selling game all year in Dollar sales in the US, dropping from 10th in May

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lun37i6gok2k

 

[fantsu]

But that 3100 figure assumed all Civ VII units sold were DLC at $30 too. I'm not overly familiar with Maneater or it's fan following, its a game from 2021, so it feels unlikely it has a high base sale rate outside sales, but certainly some will have come before the latest price drop, but not enough to explain the magnitude of difference if those 3000 odd Civ sales were full price base game units.

Maneater is niche like 4X. Its for those rare people who enjoyed Jaws Unleashed that it takes its inspiration from.
I seriously think it would not sell many copies even heavily discounted.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Just for fun, made ChatGPT estimate the amount of console sales (didn't include Epic Games for simplicity). ChatGPT estimated baseline sales for consoles to be more than 1M. See attached

 

[itix]

Just for fun, made ChatGPT estimate the amount of console sales (didn't include Epic Games for simplicity). ChatGPT estimated baseline sales for consoles to be more than 1M. See attached

I think ChatGPT overestimates physical sales by assuming it is on par with digital sales.

"Across Europe, 75% of 'new games' (games released this year) have been sold as digital downloads (25% via physical retailers). That is a 12 percentage point shift over this time last year, when just 63% of games were sold via the likes of PSN, Xbox Live, Steam and eShop."

How digital is the video games market in 2024?

The vast majority of the games industry is digital. This has been the case for quite some time.

www.gamesindustry.biz

Switch 2 estimation is pure hallucination based on no evidence:

"~5–10% of those owners bought Civ VII – on the order of 0.2–0.35M units."
&&
"A user upgrading from Switch to Switch 2 is counted as one sale (not double-counted)."

Apart from those, it is probably true that PS5 is the dominant platform for console players.

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

Just for fun, made ChatGPT estimate the amount of console sales (didn't include Epic Games for simplicity). ChatGPT estimated baseline sales for consoles to be more than 1M. See attached

I hate to be this blunt about it but I don't think anyone cares what an AI prompt you wrote estimates

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think ChatGPT overestimates physical sales by assuming it is on par with digital sales.

"Across Europe, 75% of 'new games' (games released this year) have been sold as digital downloads (25% via physical retailers). That is a 12 percentage point shift over this time last year, when just 63% of games were sold via the likes of PSN, Xbox Live, Steam and eShop."

How digital is the video games market in 2024?

The vast majority of the games industry is digital. This has been the case for quite some time.

www.gamesindustry.biz

Switch 2 estimation is pure hallucination based on no evidence:

"~5–10% of those owners bought Civ VII – on the order of 0.2–0.35M units."
&&
"A user upgrading from Switch to Switch 2 is counted as one sale (not double-counted)."

Apart from those, it is probably true that PS5 is the dominant platform for console players.

The sources ChatGPT use are mostly referring to physical sales, it's mentioned in the report. If instead of 50% physical sales, we have 25%, the result would be almost twice the number we got in this report (almost, because some sources are still about digital).

I hate to be this blunt about it but I don't think anyone cares what an AI prompt you wrote estimates

I admire your skill of ignoring information you don't like. I could provide the list of prompts I used. The only comments I made were:

• Don't use Civ6 as basis, since it didn't have console version on release
• Only count base game sales, so if someone bought Switch 1 version and upgraded it to Switch 2, count it as 1 unit

 

[itix]

The sources ChatGPT use are mostly referring to physical sales, it's mentioned in the report. If instead of 50% physical sales, we have 25%, the result would be almost twice the number we got in this report (almost, because some sources are still about digital).

I think you didnt get it. If 25% of games sold were physical copies in 2024 (and it is even less now) you can halve estimations. And that is very inaccurate because some platforms are more digital than others. About 10% on the PC, 20% on the XBox. On the PS5, more games are sold as physical copies.

(I refer to this: "Charts cited are mostly physical; we assume a roughly 50/50 split globally.")

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

The sources ChatGPT use are mostly referring to physical sales, it's mentioned in the report. If instead of 50% physical sales, we have 25%, the result would be almost twice the number we got in this report (almost, because some sources are still about digital).

So baseless assumption because the only data we have on physical sales is that at one brief point at launch Civ VII topped the physical sales charts in the UK. That's literally it.

I admire your skill of ignoring information you don't like. I could provide the list of prompts I used. The only comments I made were:

• Don't use Civ6 as basis, since it didn't have console version on release
• Only count base game sales, so if someone bought Switch 1 version and upgraded it to Switch 2, count it as 1 unit

No one is ignoring data, every thing you plugged into an AI prompt (outside of pure illogical assumption like "lets say 10% of switch users bought the game for no reason whatsoever) has already been addressed here.

Why wouldn't we use Civ VI as a basis? Not releasing on consoles is completely irrelevant to the fact that it sold 2 million in just a few weeks objectively. Gamealytics has VII at 1 million PC sales (you know the main platform for the series) and you keep pointing to some mystically and non-existent 1 million console players using faulty data and speculation when we we know from 2K's earning call that the ENTIRE Civ franchise (including all DLC units seperately and past titles) only managed to sell what 2-3 million units for the quarter. Gameatlyics estimates that VI is still managing half the sales on PC as VII every week. So where on earth are these million+ console players for VII, Stealth?

 

[stealth_nsk]

I think you didnt get it. If 25% of games sold were physical copies in 2024 (and it is even less now) you can halve estimations. And that is very inaccurate because some platforms are more digital than others. About 10% on the PC, 20% on the XBox. On the PS5, more games are sold as physical copies.

(I refer to this: "Charts cited are mostly physical; we assume a roughly 50/50 split globally.")

It's the other way around. See, ChatGPT found many sources on physical sales and made some estimations. When it doubled the number, assuming 50/50 split. If we assume physical is 25%, instead of double we should quadruple it.

Why wouldn't we use Civ VI as a basis? Not releasing on consoles is completely irrelevant to the fact that it sold 2 million in just a few weeks objectively

Sigh. Civ6 has 0 sales on consoles in the first half a year, because it wasn't released on them. Using Civ6 proportion to estimate Civ7 sales would mean "multiply by zero".

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

It's the other way around. See, ChatGPT found many sources on physical sales and made some estimations

No it didn't, you just wrote a prompt that tells you what you want to hear using a collection of faulty data and articles like "at one specific moment during its launch, VII briefly topped physical sales in one country alone" and "switch 2 is the fastest selling console" that you cannot possible use to accurately estimate concrete global sales figure of Civ VII from. There is literally no reason on earth to think that VII's sales were 50% digital and 50% physical either and yet here your prompt is using that as a baseline for what is ultimately just completely unfounded estimations.

Sigh. Civ6 has 0 sales on consoles in the first half a year, because it wasn't released on them. Using Civ6 proportion to estimate Civ7 sales would mean "multiply by zero".

Irrelevant. No one is using Civ6 alone to estimate VII's sales... Again where are the alleged million+ console users that make up the difference in sales, Stealth? They're not leaving many reviews or feedback about the game on Playstation or Xbox and they surely are not downloading and actually playing it considering the game considering it is no where to be found on lists of most popular games on consoles either.

 

[Siptah]

Apart from those, it is probably true that PS5 is the dominant platform for console players.

We don't know. For civ VI, is was apparently the Switch which went beyond all expectations. And for 7, the physical copies on switch outsold all other platforms, including PC. But this might simply be due to Switch being the last relevant market for physical sales. I'm not saying that 7 sold great on Switch 1 with the extra limitations, nor that the Switch 2 version has sold an incredible amount – I just think that long term, the platform impotence for a game like civ will be:
Steam (PC > Mac > Linux) > Switch > Epic > PS5 > Xbox

I don't own civ 7 on my Switch 2, and I don't plan to buy it there. But if the console can handle the game's graphics and turn times well enough, it's probably on par (due to its good mouse-like controller) or superior (due to touch screen and handheld) to playing it on a PC. I would be surprised if the other consoles can keep up with that.

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

We don't know. For civ VI, is was apparently the Switch which went beyond all expectations. And for 7, the physical copies on switch outsold all other platforms, including PC.

What makes you come to this conclusion? Again the ONLY data we have on physical copies sold (that I'm aware of) is that the game topped the UK physical charts for a week or so on its launch, that PS5 accounted for most of those physical sales, and Switch physical outsold PC/Xbox in the UK. Data which is almost entirely useless by itself because most people do not buy physical anymore and the UK is literally one relatively small country.

PS5 accounts for 47% of physical Civilization 7 sales, which is more than PC and Xbox combined in its debut week, based on the UK Software Sales Chart

TBF I bet playing games on consoles is hell. FTFY

icon-era.com

I don't own civ 7 on my Switch 2, and I don't plan to buy it there. But if the console can handle the game's graphics and turn times well enough, it's probably on par (due to its good mouse-like controller) or superior (due to touch screen and handheld) to playing it on a PC. I would be surprised if the other consoles can keep up with that.

Switch 1 version couldn't handle maps larger than small and we have player limits because devolopment for the switch, that's without touching upon lack of mod support.. I sincerly doubt even with the improved performance that Switch 2 would ever be superior to PC or Steamdeck.

Also you know you can buy a mouse and keyboard for Playstation and Xbox too right? They both support it

 

[Kumbao]

About the number of players on console. Since there is no actual way to check the real numbers, I checked some numbers on a trophy hunter page. These numbers are not neccessarily indicative on how popular a game is, but its still better then nothing. The trophy that has been unlocked by the most players is "One Hit Wonder", which you unlock by completing all milestones of the cultural legacy path in antiquity. That trophy has been unlocked by 722 people. Which is not great, but not terrible either. Trophy hunters are not really into lengthy strategy games. But if I should interpret these numbers I'd say that Civ is not doing too great on consoles either.

Edit: here is the Link

 

[AD1730]

What makes you come to this conclusion? Again the ONLY data we have on physical copies sold (that I'm aware of) is that the game topped the UK physical charts for a week or so on its launch, that PS5 accounted for most of those physical sales, and Switch physical outsold PC/Xbox. Data which is almost entirely useless by itself because most people do not buy physical anymore anyway

PS5 accounts for 47% of physical Civilization 7 sales, which is more than PC and Xbox combined in its debut week, based on the UK Software Sales Chart

TBF I bet playing games on consoles is hell. FTFY

icon-era.com

Switch 1 version couldn't handle maps larger than small and we have player limits because devolopment for the switch, that's without touching upon lack of mod support.. I sincerly doubt even with the improved performance that Switch 2 would ever be superior to PC or Steamdeck.

Also you know you can buy a mouse and keyboard for Playstation and Xbox too right? They both support it

I couldn’t get a true Civ 7 physical copy even if I wanted to. My PC doesn’t have a disc drive, and it is increasingly rare to find non-custom PCs sold with disc drives. “Physical copies” for PC now are typically just a box with a code in it, which doesn’t provide much reason to purchase the game that way unless you see the box as a collector’s item.

Given all that, using physical copies as the cornerstone of an argument regarding overall sales is like building your foundation on sand.

 

[Siptah]

@AD1730 Yeah, physical sales are not a good indicator for anything, which I also said two posts up. The point of my post was the hypothesis that Switch will likely outperform PS at some point, and not much else.

On the more tangible side: since I checked yesterday, another 900 copies of civ VII have been sold on Steam according to Gamalytic – which I still find curious. It's still more copies than average daily sales during the reduced price not long ago. I only loosely followed what @Verified_Confection_Being and @stealth_nsk were arguing about regarding whether this could include DLC sales. But while we know that 2K/TT includes some DLC (like expansions) as copies in their count, apparently, Gamalytic has dedicated counts for DLC, hence, it would be strange if they include it there (which requires a paid subscription to see the numbers – which I don't have) and in for the base game.

On the funny side, while civ VII for some reason still has its largest player base in the US (subject to change though), CotW shows most owners/players in China, as do most other DLCs. Friedrich (Baroque) has his largest share of owners in Finland though, Carthage in France, and Ada in Thailand. There's no data on Right to Rule yet, as it is too recent. Yet, these owner shares by country point towards the gamalytic data being more questionable than I thought it was (not that I would take them as more than rough estimations). While Friedrich is sold separately, Carthage and Ada should have a similar owner share, as they are only available together.

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

I thought I'd give it a go to

My prompt:
How many sales of civilization vii have been console sales?

Response from chatgpt:
Righto! Let’s take a proper look at what we know — in a refined English accent, naturally:

---

### Civilization VII Console Sales Estimate

**Overall sales**: Take‑Two (publisher of Civilization VII) reported *roughly 3 million units sold across all platforms* in its first quarter after release ([CivFanatics Forums][1]).

**PC segment (Steam only)**: In the same period, it’s estimated that around *1 million copies* were sold *via Steam*, implying the remaining *\~2 million units* were likely console and other platform sales ([CivFanatics Forums][1]).

**Thus, approximately** **65–70%** of Civilization VII sales appear to have come from **console and other non‑Steam platforms** within that initial window.

---

### Snapshot: UK Physical Chart Splits at Launch Week

During the UK retail debut, **physical sales** of Civ VII were broken down roughly as:

* **PS5** accounted for **47%**
* **Switch** 27%
* **Xbox** 10%
* **PC (physical)** just 17% ([Nintendo Life][2])

That yields **84% console (PS5, Switch, Xbox)** vs **16% PC** in *physical format*.

---

### What This Tells Us

* In the UK physical charts, console versions dominated sales from the outset.
* Globally, using the broader Q1 sales estimate, it seems **majority of units sold (\~2 million of \~3 million)** were on console and non‑Steam platforms.
* Fine print: The **Steam figure** likely undercounts *all PC sales* (e.g. Epic Games Store, Mac, Linux, etc.), and digital sales on consoles may not be captured in physical‑only breakdowns.

---

### Summary Table

| Platform | Estimated Share of Initial Sales |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Steam (PC) | \~1 million (≈ 33%) |
| Console + other platforms | \~2 million (≈ 67%) |

**Approximate inference**: **65–70% of Civilization VII sales so far appear to be from consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch)**.

---

Let me know if you’d like breakdowns by specific console (e.g. how the Switch compares to PS5, Xbox), or data on digital sources beyond Steam!

[1]: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...thread.697557/page-109?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread | Page 109 | CivFanatics Forums"
[2]: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...n-outsells-pc-and-xbox?utm_source=chatgpt.com "UK Charts: Civilization VII Starts Strong, Switch Version Outsells PC And Xbox | Nintendo Life"


It's all feeling a bit self referential at this point. Chatgpt is looking at this thread to answer the questions that were asking in this thread.

 

[aieeegrunt]

I thought I'd give it a go to

My prompt:
How many sales of civilization vii have been console sales?

Response from chatgpt:
Righto! Let’s take a proper look at what we know — in a refined English accent, naturally:

---

### Civilization VII Console Sales Estimate

**Overall sales**: Take‑Two (publisher of Civilization VII) reported *roughly 3 million units sold across all platforms* in its first quarter after release ([CivFanatics Forums][1]).

**PC segment (Steam only)**: In the same period, it’s estimated that around *1 million copies* were sold *via Steam*, implying the remaining *\~2 million units* were likely console and other platform sales ([CivFanatics Forums][1]).

**Thus, approximately** **65–70%** of Civilization VII sales appear to have come from **console and other non‑Steam platforms** within that initial window.

---

### Snapshot: UK Physical Chart Splits at Launch Week

During the UK retail debut, **physical sales** of Civ VII were broken down roughly as:

* **PS5** accounted for **47%**
* **Switch** 27%
* **Xbox** 10%
* **PC (physical)** just 17% ([Nintendo Life][2])

That yields **84% console (PS5, Switch, Xbox)** vs **16% PC** in *physical format*.

---

### What This Tells Us

* In the UK physical charts, console versions dominated sales from the outset.
* Globally, using the broader Q1 sales estimate, it seems **majority of units sold (\~2 million of \~3 million)** were on console and non‑Steam platforms.
* Fine print: The **Steam figure** likely undercounts *all PC sales* (e.g. Epic Games Store, Mac, Linux, etc.), and digital sales on consoles may not be captured in physical‑only breakdowns.

---

### Summary Table

| Platform | Estimated Share of Initial Sales |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Steam (PC) | \~1 million (≈ 33%) |
| Console + other platforms | \~2 million (≈ 67%) |

**Approximate inference**: **65–70% of Civilization VII sales so far appear to be from consoles (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch)**.

---

Let me know if you’d like breakdowns by specific console (e.g. how the Switch compares to PS5, Xbox), or data on digital sources beyond Steam!

[1]: https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...thread.697557/page-109?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread | Page 109 | CivFanatics Forums"
[2]: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...n-outsells-pc-and-xbox?utm_source=chatgpt.com "UK Charts: Civilization VII Starts Strong, Switch Version Outsells PC And Xbox | Nintendo Life"


It's all feeling a bit self referential at this point. Chatgpt is looking at this thread to answer the questions that were asking in this thread.

That’s why you have to be incrediy careful using AI to do your analysis for you

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

I was just checking out the sources in @stealth_nsks AI query too, and theres a smoking gun in there for me.

Its the first time I've seen the first week Famitsu figures. Playstation and Nintendo have such a monopoly on consoles there, and the total first week sales were just over 6000 (majority of sales on steam were first week). Japan is a traditionally strong market for civ making up about 1% of Civ VI sales.

Assuming even distribution of console sales by market, and Japan maintaining a 1% market share, that would put console sales around 600,000 - 700,000

That would put total initial sales somewhere in the region of 1.75mil, and that would be in line with 1mil or so older version sales to bring to approx 3mil sales from the 2k earnings call

 

[stealth_nsk]

That’s why you have to be incrediy careful using AI to do your analysis for you

Yes and there are ways to improve the results, like separating by steps. What I did:

- First asked to create methodology
- Checked it, found that one of the things it proposed using Civ6 console sales proportion. I pointed out that Civ6 wasn't released with console support, so the proportion can't be used directly
- Asked to gather sources and quickly looked through. With methodology already generated all sources looked calid
- Asked to do deep research based on this methodology
- Answered questions like which regions I want to be represented and how I want Switch sales to be treated
- Got the results

That way I got some analysis on ChatGPT part. If you ask it directly, it would try to use easiest way, like presenting this thread contents as results.

 

[fantsu]

What is even a "physical copy" of VII? Switch (1) is the only one working out of the box without downloads or installations.