Summary
One Steam account that has been active for a little over 10 years has accrued more than 50,000 hours playingSid Meier’s Civilization 5. WhileCivilization 5and other games in Firaxis Games' acclaimed series are among the most celebrated that the 4X strategy genre has to offer, that amount of playtime suggests that someone has spent more time in the last decade playing it than not playing it.
Civilization 5was released nearly 15 years ago, in September 2010. The launch of the game marked a turning point for the series, as some fans seeCivilization 4as having reached the pinnacle ofCivilization’s original formula, withCivilization 5being a true game-changer, adding features like hexagonal tiles, Natural Wonders, and the elimination of transport units.
Civilization 5was still one of themost-played Steam games of 2016, despiteCivilization 6releasing in the same year. While the game has resonated better with the fans than either of the two series entries that have followed it, there are likely few fans who have dumped as much time intoCivilization 5as the holder of the Steam account oldcsm52. Some keen-eyed Steam users recently spotted this account’s sole review, which was posted for the game on May 3, and noted that the account holder had logged in excess of 50,000 hours of playtime on the single title. For perspective, that’s more than five and a half years of cumulative runtime for the game on Steam, and as the account was opened in April 2015, someone has been playingCivilization 5on it for more than half of the account’s existence.
Civilization 5 Player Racks Up More than 5 Years of Playtime
The staggering figure has left some fans of the game skeptical that the total amount of runtime could be attributed to a single person actually playing the game for that long. While theSteam Families game-sharing featurewas launched in beta in March 2024, granting access to games from multiple devices, multiple people could still have been taking turns playing the game before then using the same account. Additionally, some have pointed out that just because the software was left running, that doesn’t mean someone was actively playing it, though 50,000 hours over 10 years would still be an impressive figure even if multiple people were leaving it open in the background.
Others find the massive playtime amount justified given the addictive nature of the strategy game series' formula, drawing on the “just one more turn” phrase commonly associated with the loss of the concept of time while playing it. Some have even used the figure to poke fun at thelong length of matches inCivilizationgames, jokingly saying that 50,000 hours equates to about three games played.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 5
WHERE TO PLAY
The fifth mainline offering in the multi-award winningCivilizationseries of strategy games,Sid Meier’s Civilization V, challenges players to establish and lead a civilization from the dawn of man into the space age.Civ Vintroduced a number of new features to the series, including City-States, research agreements between leaders, and the now-familiar hexagonal map tiles. Multiple paths to victory are still a staple of the series, so science, culture, and diplomacy are just as viable as military conquest. Wars between empires feel massive inCiv V, with armies spreading across the landscape like never before. The introduction of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, affords a powerful new defensive option for cities under siege, and challenges leaders to devise new strategies on the battlefield. Leaders also have expansive diplomatic options at their disposal as they negotiate and carefully manage relationships with some of history’s most cunning and respected rulers, each with their own plan for victory. Even when plying other civilizations with gold, trade offers, or permission to move within your borders, friends and foes can be challenging to tell apart. City-States serve as a diplomatic battleground of sorts, as the world’s major powers vie for their loyalty in an attempt to secure meaningful bonuses and even military allies.
