Shacknews: Best Strategy Game of 2025 - Sid Meier's Civilization 7

[Spoonwood]

But the award isn't the award for "what the majority of Steam players prefer". So I have to ask once more: why does it matter that Shacknews has a different opinion?

Why would it matter that some company has a different opinion than the majority?

Well, if they claim to understand the majority or represent the majority it could matter. If they claimed to be an authoritative source, like one that should get respected or something, then it could matter.

 

[Spoonwood]

They might be reviewed better but Civ VII has better player retention than 2 of them. VII also has better player retention than Endless Legend II (82% positive), Anno 117 (70% positive) and is only 1.3% worse than Europa Universalis V (76% positive). This is despite being more expensive and much worse reviewed on Steam. My takeaway from this is if you like Civ VII, you like it more than the people who positively reviewed some of these other much better reviewed games.

Comparative player retention isn't something I had considered previously. So, that's interesting.

 

[Evolena]

Why would it matter that some company has a different opinion than the majority?

Well, if they claim to understand the majority or represent the majority it could matter. If they claimed to be an authoritative source, like one that should get respected or something, then it could matter.

I'm sorry, which majority are you talking about? Nobody can know what the majority really think, when not everybody give their opinion, and no one can tell if those who do are representative in every percent of everybody's opinions.

 

[Crashdummy]

The title is giving it fully away: Shacknews has crowned Civ7 to be their best strategy title of 2025.
It managed to beat the latest Commandos title and Final Fantasy Tactics among others.
The Shacknews team appreciated the changing civs (yes, they did) and the new strategies it allows, the navigable rivers and the removal of workers.
At the end, Civ7 won narrowly with 4 vs 3 votes against Jurassic World Evolution 3, and is now Shacknews strategy game of 2026.

Most of the discussion is in the video, the link to the article is here.

Wonder how much has 2k paid for this

 

[Gorbles]

Why would it matter that some company has a different opinion than the majority?

Well, if they claim to understand the majority or represent the majority it could matter. If they claimed to be an authoritative source, like one that should get respected or something, then it could matter.

You keep suggesting things without explicitly committing to them as a held position. It's a very tiring way of having a discussion.

Shacknews gave an award, and for some reason some folks critical of VII have a hard time accepting it. It's hard to understand why.

I get disagreeing with it. But this insistence of some kind of non-subjective, non-opinionated statement of fact seems self-defeating. You can dress it up as much as you want, but you are approaching this subjectively.

 

[Sagax]

Am I the only one who is like "Who are Shacknews, and why is there so much fuss over their opinion?"

Genuinely haven't heard of them until this thread, and the linked video is below 300 views after 3 days. The ruckus this thread is causing, you’d imagine Civ 7 won The Game Awards or something. And many would pay no mind even to the latter.

 

[Kev1916]

Wonder how much has 2k paid for this

For sure Christmas bonus for some unknown company, the year that EUV was released this cough "company" had

Civ7 wining narrowly with 4 vs 3 votes against Jurassic World Evolution 3 ROFL

 

[Gorbles]

Am I the only one who is like "Who are Shacknews, and why is there so much fuss over their opinion?"

Genuinely haven't heard of them until this thread, and the linked video is below 300 views after 3 days. The ruckus this thread is causing, you’d imagine Civ 7 won The Game Awards or something. And many would pay no mind even to the latter.

Honestly, I knew the name and the fact it's been around a while, but that's about it.

 

[Spoonwood]

I'm sorry, which majority are you talking about? Nobody can know what the majority really think, when not everybody give their opinion, and no one can tell if those who do are representative in every percent of everybody's opinions.

The majority of strategy gamers who have played multiple strategy games.

 

[stealth_nsk]

The majority of strategy gamers who have played multiple strategy games.

And the source of this statistics is?

 

[AddAdamSmith]

Are we doing charts again? One of the few interesting tidbits that came out of that “discussion” is that the Civ VII playerbase overlap is mostly with other 4x games and paradox’s titles, while the Civ VI playerbase overlap is mostly with “games that were also popular in 2016”.

 

[Spoonwood]

And the source of this statistics is?

Steam reviews. I posted that above.

 

[stealth_nsk]

Steam reviews. I posted that above.

Steam reviews have no distinction between "strategy gamers who have played multiple strategy games" and the rest of the player. Also they don't show the majority of any group.

 

[reddishrecue]

This was surprisingly good news. I thought the game performance declined. I was way off. To the developers then, keep up the good work.

 

[Doratov]

This is also from Steam, capped from the top 100 revenue list. It's not in the top 100 most played list though (Civ6 is in the Silver tier, which is the 25th-50th most played), but revenue seems fine.
Steam best of lists.

 

[Albertan Civfanatic]

Great to see, as was the recent Eurogamer article. This was never a bad game, but it was certainly a rushed one on release, so the reviews suffered; it will need some positive press to have a chance at the second impression with wider audience.

Link?

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I could honestly care less about awards given out these days, be it video games, movies/TV shows, or music etc. because how many times have my favorites won anything?
Probably none but I don't pay enough attention to know if one I like does.

Anyways, it's not a big deal that some website of gaming journalists, I think, decided that Civ 7 was their favorite strategy game of the year. it's just their opinion and everyone is entitled to it. These might be the type that think Charizard is the best fire type/starter Pokémon too, even though Arcanine and Blastoise are right there as the correct answers.

 

[pjotroos]

Link?

I'm loving a pirate's life in Civilization 7, which keeps getting better as Firaxis' diligent updates continue

Having seen Firaxis' efforts over these first six months, I'm convinced that Civ 7 will indeed eventually 'get there'

www.eurogamer.net

 

[reddishrecue]

I could honestly care less about awards given out these days, be it video games, movies/TV shows, or music etc. because how many times have my favorites won anything?
Probably none but I don't pay enough attention to know if one I like does.

Anyways, it's not a big deal that some website of gaming journalists, I think, decided that Civ 7 was their favorite strategy game of the year. it's just their opinion and everyone is entitled to it. These might be the type that think Charizard is the best fire type/starter Pokémon too, even though Arcanine and Blastoise are right there as the correct answers.

Well, blastoise is a very good water type. They are kind of the same but different elements.

 

[disjointaccount]

If we're comparing Pokemon, Charizard isn't even the best fire starter with a 78/84/78/109/85/100 stat spread...