Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings vs Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a strategy game from Hidden Path Entertainment (1999) while Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition is an open-world strategy game from World's Edge (2021).
Quick answer: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings has the higher Metacritic, 92 to 81.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
What each one is
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is filed under Strategy. In contrast, Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition under Open-World and Strategy.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a real-time strategy video game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft. Released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh in 2001, it is the second game in the Age of Empires series. The Age of Kings is set in the Middle Ages and contains 13 playable civilizations. Players aim to gather resources, which they use to build towns, create armies, and defeat their enemies. There are 5 historically based campaigns, which conscript the player to specialized and story-backed conditions, and 3 additional single-player game modes; multiplayer is also supported.
Celebrating its first year of delighting millions of global players, the award-winning and best-selling strategy franchise continues with Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, putting you at the center of even more epic historical battles that shaped the world.
Story, characters and reception
Reception
Sales In January 2000, three months after its release, Microsoft had shipped two million copies of The Age of Kings . The game topped sales charts in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and South Korea. It spent the next two and a half years on top 20 sales lists. (Wikipedia)
No Wikipedia detail on file.
At a glance
| Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings | Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| GamingPickz Score | — | 7.8/10 |
| Steam rating | — | Very Positive (86%, 95,393) |
| Critic aggregate | 92/100 | 81/100 |
| Price | Unknown | $39.99 |
| Install size | — | 50 GB |
| Steam Deck | Untested | playable |
| Released | 1999 | 2021 |
| Developer | Hidden Path Entertainment | World's Edge |
Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings vs Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, point by point
Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.
Genre and premise
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsStrategy gameAge of Empires IV: Anniversary EditionOpen-world strategy gameWhat each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.
How it plays
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsNo descriptive tagsAge of Empires IV: Anniversary EditionStrategy, RTS, Base-BuildingThe tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.
Reception
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings ✓Metacritic 92Age of Empires IV: Anniversary EditionMetacritic 81Metacritic's critic aggregate, from the game's Wikipedia reception where it was never on Steam.
Content and scale
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings—Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition95,393 reviews · 8 add-ons · 50 GBReach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.
Price
Age of Empires II: The Age of KingsUnknownAge of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition$39.99Read live from Steam and subject to change.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.
Which to pick, by what you want
- The better reviewed of the two: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (Metacritic 92)
Where they differ
StrategyRTSBase-BuildingMultiplayerWarSingleplayer
Tags players apply to one game and not the other.
Difficulty and who each is for
By the tags players apply, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.
System requirements, side by side
| Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings | Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum GPU | — | Intel HD 520 |
| Minimum CPU | — | Intel Core i5-6300U |
| Minimum RAM | — | 8 GB |
| Install size | — | 50 GB |
Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings · Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition.
Accessibility features
Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and 1 for Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition. A declaration is a floor, not a review.
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Common questions
How different are Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings and Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition in scope?
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings lists little scope data. Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition has drawn 95,393 Steam reviews, ships 8 add-ons and installs in 50 GB.
Is Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings or Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition better?
Neither carries enough reviews for us to score it reliably, so we do not call a winner. The table above shows what each does have.
Which is cheaper, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings or Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition?
One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.
Should I get Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings or Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition?
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings has the higher Metacritic, 92 to 81. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.
Do you rank one above the other for a fee?
No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.
Related comparisons
All comparisonsHow we compare, and what we will not do
The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.