Why are Civ IV's player numbers on Steam growing?

TheCleanerDragon

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I took a look at the player numbers for the Civ games on Steam Charts. Most of it was pretty normal, Civ VI has the most, then Civ V, then Civ IV, etc.
Civ V's numbers are what I expected, it was very popular until Civ VI came out and since then it has been slowly declining.
But oddly, in the ten years Steam Charts has been collecting data on player numbers, the amount of Civ IV players has grown.
What on earth is causing this? have people slowly been realizing Civ IV is the best Civ or is something else causing it?
Spoiler :


2012 Civ 4.png


2023 Civ4.png

 
I got a new PC with no disk drive and had to buy it again, suspect that's not unique (probably not the whole story though). I mean I could have made it work but it was on sale for a really low price so the convenience was worth it.
 
I got a new PC with no disk drive and had to buy it again, suspect that's not unique (probably not the whole story though). I mean I could have made it work but it was on sale for a really low price so the convenience was worth it.
That could explain some of it. Disks get lost, or scratched beyond usability and then get replaced by the steam version.
 
The same pattern applies for Civ3: https://steamcharts.com/app/3910 Only from about half of the starting point Civ4: BTS had, to about 90% of the Civ4 BTS player count today - i.e. it's the same as Civ4 BTS but more so.

I suspect Noble Zarkon is correct about players migrating to Steam/GOG as discs wear out or they buy laptops without integrated DVD players. Another factor in why Civ3 may have jumped so much is that Windows 10 doesn't support the DRM its discs use (and Windows 7/8.1 don't if you still an "Important" patch), so most Civ3 players have been forced to go digital whether they wanted to or not.

Another factor to consider is that Steam itself has many more users than it did 10 years ago. Since the Civ games have a long tail, there is opportunity to grow - having five times as many players on Steam sounds impressive, but Steam itself might have 10 times as many players or even more, and there may be 1/10th as many disc-based players as 10 years ago.

What surprises me is that Civ4 Vanilla has about half the traffic of Civ4: BTS, with a similar rate of growth over time. I'd have thought most players who stuck with Vanilla would have gradually upgraded to BTS, and most disc players who buy digital would want to buy BTS either to keep BTS or to finally upgrade after years of playing. But maybe there's a steady stream of newcomers who want to try it but want the cheap entry version.
 
because civ4 is the best civ and no new game will ever be able to replace it :^)
No arguments against this.

5&6 players will say things about stacks of doom and square tiles. but 4 provides more of a challenge and more ways to play.
My daughter is quite a hardcore civ5 player, and plays multiplayer a lot. The winning strategies she uses are all diluted version of civ4 strategies.
 
What surprises me is that Civ4 Vanilla has about half the traffic of Civ4: BTS, with a similar rate of growth over time. I'd have thought most players who stuck with Vanilla would have gradually upgraded to BTS, and most disc players who buy digital would want to buy BTS either to keep BTS or to finally upgrade after years of playing. But maybe there's a steady stream of newcomers who want to try it but want the cheap entry version.
I was also surprised to see Civ4 have that many players. What surprises me more is how many Civ4 Warlords has. Besides the handful of scenarios available only in Warlords, I'm not sure why anyone would play it.
Another oddity, and this might be a Steam Charts problem, is that there are two Civ4 BTS's listed, and I'm not sure why
civ4bts.png
 
That could explain some of it. Disks get lost, or scratched beyond usability and then get replaced by the steam version.
My old disks still work. Not installed for 5 years. This pc should last at least 5 more years.

The top games have 500k-1m players a day, Albeit civ 4 is old and many may still play on disk. Many migrating to steam.
Civ VI 49k
Civ V 20k.
So 2k is okay. Assuming others on GOG and playing disk only like me.
 
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Another oddity, and this might be a Steam Charts problem, is that there are two Civ4 BTS's listed, and I'm not sure why
For whatever reason Steam gives the Mac version of BTS its own launcher, so it shows up as two separate games. I have this issue in my played games as well:
Screen Shot 2023-02-25 at 2.11.01 PM.png
 
I was also surprised to see Civ4 have that many players. What surprises me more is how many Civ4 Warlords has. Besides the handful of scenarios available only in Warlords, I'm not sure why anyone would play it.
Another oddity, and this might be a Steam Charts problem, is that there are two Civ4 BTS's listed, and I'm not sure why
Doesn't warlords come with every pack that BTS does? So can we assume a lot of those are double counts?
 
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