Player stats, sales, and reception speculation thread

[Kwami]

Stealth posted a graph a couple pages back. It showed VI bottoming out at around 25k players during its downtime around 2017. At the time of writing this VII has 5,911 players. I don't think these situations are really comparable.

Two things can be true at the same time.

1. VI had far fewer players than V for a very long time.
2. VII has fewer players N months after launch than VI did.

 

[itix]

It is possible that Civ VII never catches up Civ VI.

 

[Verified_Confection_Being]

Q1 2026 earnings call for 2K is later today, so that might give us some more to chew over. Last time we got the 3mil units sold in the last year across the Civ franchise which at least gave an upper cap for what the sales could have been.

 

[Maiq]

Q1 2026 earnings call for 2K is later today, so that might give us some more to chew over. Last time we got the 3mil units sold in the last year across the Civ franchise which at least gave an upper cap for what the sales could have been.

Oh yeah, can't wait to argue about corpo speak!

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Oh yeah, can't wait to argue about corpo speak!

Imagine if they say nothing at all and we end up arguing about corpo silence!

 

[Gori the Grey]

That was pretty much it, last time; we spent most of our time discussing what could be inferred from what they didn't say.

 

[Maiq]

As long as people keep the tinfoil down, there is some value in what they don't say on those calls. I wasn't paying attention when they had their last one, so I have no idea what the discussion about it was like, but I assume it was as lively as ever.

 

[Sagax]

As long as people keep the tinfoil down, there is some value in what they don't say on those calls. I wasn't paying attention when they had their last one, so I have no idea what the discussion about it was like, but I assume it was as lively as ever.

The discussions were brief and not that pot-stirring, honestly. We did note that they really didn’t say much about Civ 7, and in comparison gave more coverage to other titles released around the same time, including specific metrics on sales and/or user engagement. For Civ 7 it was basically “yeah, we’re optimistic about the game’s future, moving on”.

I expect Civ 7’s coverage in this call to be the same, if not even less. The shareholder talks will be increasingly dominated by GTA 6 with every passing quarter.

 

[Maiq]

The discussions were brief and not that pot-stirring, honestly. We did note that they really didn’t say much about Civ 7, and in comparison gave more coverage to other titles released around the same time, including specific metrics on sales and/or user engagement. For Civ 7 it was basically “yeah, we’re optimistic about the game’s future, moving on”.

I expect Civ 7’s coverage in this call to be the same, if not even less. The shareholder talks will be increasingly dominated by GTA 6 with every passing quarter.

Yeah I'd assume big nothing as well. Plus it is getting to be about that time for a new NBA game and Borderlands is coming up too, way bigger fish to them.

 

[Xur]

Is it plausible that Firaxis is doing such a poor job as part of some convoluted attempt to be sold off by 2K? Maybe it's not a secret plot - just a masterclass in how not to make a game.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Not to me it is not.

 

[Nikolai II]

No. Not plausible at all.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Ok, so Take-Two presentation is out and it's structured the same as previous ones, so no info about sales on particular games, only on franchises. What we could get from the presentation, though:

As most of us predicted, nobody is going to go bankrupt. Financial metrics are good.

On the information about Civilization franchise, number of units sold went up from 76M to 77M, BUT we don't know whether those numbers already include Civ6 giveaway on EGS or not (and whether giveaways count at all). If it does, the change could be mostly attributed there (free games on EGS are usually claimed 600K-700K times). Although, with giveaway happened just 3 weeks ago, it could be doubted as corporate reports rarely work that fast. So, as usual, interpreting this piece of information depends on what you believe in.

 

[TylertheDestroyer]

Ok, so Take-Two presentation is out and it's structured the same as previous ones, so no info about sales on particular games, only on franchises. What we could get from the presentation, though:

As most of us predicted, nobody is going to go bankrupt. Financial metrics are good.

Of course Take Two as an entire company isn't going to go bankrupt because of Civ VII. That doesn't mean Firaxis as a devoloper individually and Civ VII are doing well

 

[Bug Repellent]

As most of us predicted, nobody is going to go bankrupt. Financial metrics are good.

I listened to the conference call live and no, things are not good. Perhaps not as bad as before, but definitely not good. A lot of corporate BS speak with enough sugar coating to give you diabetes.

TTWO posted another quarter of NEGATIVE cash flow ($12m, or a $0.07/share loss) and for FY2026 they're expecting a GAAP loss between $377-$442m ($2.02-$2.4 loss per share), slightly better than previous guidance of $439-499$m loss. In other words, if you put $100 in TTWO today, they promise to lose $1 in FY26 for you. Quite the investment! But yes, the CEO said is was an "outstanding quarter".

Only 11% of TTWO's revenue comes from PC games. ALL PC games. Mobile is 51%, Consoles 38%. United States accounted for 60% of their revenue, 40% international.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I listened to the conference call live and no, things are not good. Perhaps not as bad as before, but definitely not good. A lot of corporate BS speak with enough sugar coating to give you diabetes.

TTWO posted another quarter of NEGATIVE cash flow ($12m, or a $0.07/share loss) and for FY2026 they're expecting a GAAP loss between $377-$442m ($2.02-$2.4 loss per share), slightly better than previous guidance of $439-499$m loss. In other words, if you put $100 in TTWO today, they promise to lose $1 in FY26 for you. Quite the investment! But yes, the CEO said is was an "outstanding quarter".

Only 11% of TTWO's revenue comes from PC games. ALL PC games. Mobile is 51%, Consoles 38%. United States accounted for 60% of their revenue, 40% international.

I haven't watch the stream, just presentation, but... GAAP isn't even a metric, it's a set of standards.

 

[user343744]

I haven't watch the stream, just presentation, but... GAAP isn't even a metric, it's a set of standards.

Very weird defense. GAAP is the set of accounting standards which the metrics are derived from, thus we get a GAAP loss metric between $377-$442m. What exactly are you getting at? Not every single negative data point has to be spinned into a positive, the GAAP loss is an undisputable negative. Virtually every single metric in US corporate financial statements conforms to GAAP standards.

 

[Gorbles]

Very weird defense. GAAP is the set of accounting standards which the metrics are derived from, thus we get a GAAP loss metric between $377-$442m. What exactly are you getting at? Not every single negative data point has to be spinned into a positive my friend. Virtually every single metric in US corporate financial statements conforms to GAAP standards.

Defense of what? Bug Repellent pointed out that only 11% comes from PC games overall. The relevance of this negative outlook to Civ VII therefore means pretty little (if anything).

 

[stealth_nsk]

Very weird defense. GAAP is the set of accounting standards which the metrics are derived from, thus we get a GAAP loss metric between $377-$442m. What exactly are you getting at? Not every single negative data point has to be spinned into a positive my friend. Virtually every single metric in US corporate financial statements conforms to GAAP standards.

I'm not trying to spin it to positive, I'm trying to understand, corporate finances aren't my strongest area of expertise. If GAAP is not a single metric, how could you count a single number loss in it? As I understand GAAP includes things like MRR, recognized revenue, deferred revenue, and so on.

 

[user343744]

Defense of what? Bug Repellent pointed out that only 11% comes from PC games overall. The relevance of this negative outlook to Civ VII therefore means pretty little (if anything).

The GAAP loss of $377-$442m, please read carefully.