Summary
New data from Steam reveals thatSid Meier’s Civilization 7is struggling to keep its fan base engaged, as the game’s player count has dropped sharply over time.Civilization 7makes 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 7was released earlier this year, and was eagerly awaited by long-time fans of the popular historical franchise. DespiteCivilization 7earning 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 ofCivilizationinstead of the newest one.
According to information fromSteamDB,Sid Meier’s Civilization 7only 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. EvenCivilization 5, which was released in 2010, has over 12,000 players, surpassingCivilization 7by a wide margin.
Civilization 7 Continues to Struggle on Steam
It doesn’t help thatCivilization 7’s performance on other platforms has not been great, either, and this could be affecting its success outside of Steam. Back in March, somePlayStation players received special refunds fromCivilization 7as 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 impactingCivilization 7with patches, and the experience has become more polished over time.A majorCivilization 7patch released in Aprilfixed 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 towardsCivilization 7. WhileCivilization 7isn’t currently considered to be one ofthe bestCivilizationgameson the market, it could at least become more successful by addressing some of the player base’s most important grievances.
