Summary
- Sid Meier's Civilization 7 player count has dropped sharply on Steam after its launch earlier this year.
- The game recently saw its lowest player count to date, with only 4,665 active users.
- Civilization 6 had around 33,000 concurrent players at the time of writing.
New data from Steam reveals that Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 is struggling to keep its fan base engaged, as the game's player count has dropped sharply over time. Civilization 7 makes some changes to the franchise’s formula, and it seems that this move, paired with a troubled launch, has greatly affected how popular the title has become.
Civilization 7 was released earlier this year, and was eagerly awaited by long-time fans of the popular historical franchise. Despite Civilization 7 earning positive reviews from most critics, the title has struggled to maintain its popularity with fans. Several changes, such as the new Eras systems and the lack of a few core features at launch, seem to have tanked many player’s hype regarding the new game, and new data indicates that some players have preferred to keep playing older iterations of Civilization instead of the newest one.
Civilization 7 Should Take Advantage of More Than Just the Switch 2's Mouse Controls
Civilization 7 is primed to be a fun time on the Switch 2, but the console has far more to offer than just its mouse Joy-Cons.
According to information from SteamDB, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 only has around 7,200 concurrent players at the time of this report, and the game recently saw its lowest player count ever: 4,665 active gamers. While these numbers are rather poor on their own, they look even worse when compared to other games from the franchise. Civilization 6, for example, currently has around 33,000 concurrent players at the time of writing, considerably more than its successor. Even Civilization 5, which was released in 2010, has over 12,000 players, surpassing Civilization 7 by a wide margin.
Civilization 7 Continues to Struggle on Steam
It doesn’t help that Civilization 7’s performance on other platforms has not been great, either, and this could be affecting its success outside of Steam. Back in March, some PlayStation players received special refunds from Civilization 7 as the title faced frequent crashes on Sony’s console.
Despite the low player count, developer Firaxis Games is trying to solve the most pressing issues impacting Civilization 7 with patches, and the experience has become more polished over time. A major Civilization 7 patch released in April fixed many bugs and added more features to the title, including research queuing, teams multiplayer, and an overall reduction of natural disasters.
Hopefully, the continued support will be able to win some players back and improve the goodwill of the community towards Civilization 7. While Civilization 7 isn't currently considered to be one of the best Civilization games on the market, it could at least become more successful by addressing some of the player base’s most important grievances.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 79 /100 Critics Rec: 77%
- Released
- February 11, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ // Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Mild Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Firaxis Games
- Publisher(s)
- 2K
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Grand Strategy, Turn-Based Strategy, 4X
