Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag vs Sid Meier's Pirates!
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an action-adventure action-RPG game from Ubisoft Romania (2013) while Sid Meier's Pirates! is a fighting open-world game from MicroProse (1987).
What each one is
Steam files Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag under Action-Adventure and Action-RPG. In contrast, it files Sid Meier's Pirates! under Fighting and Open-World.
Discover Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag, the classic pirate action-adventure game from 2013. Command your ship, hunt Templars and carve your legend as Edward Kenway across the Caribbean's Golden Age of Piracy.
Sail the Caribbean, marauding all on the high seas or ally your ship and crew as a privateer in search of riches - the life you choose is up to you. Face dogged enemies, raid unsuspecting villages, woo fair maidens, avoid capture or dig for buried treasure. Discover what it takes to become one of the most famous pirates in history!
At a glance
| Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | Sid Meier's Pirates! | |
|---|---|---|
| GamingPickz Score | 7.8/10 | 7.7/10 |
| Steam rating | Very Positive (88%, 78,523) | Very Positive (94%, 7,535) |
| Critic aggregate | No aggregate | 88/100 |
| Price | $39.99 | $9.99 |
| Install size | 30 GB | — |
| Steam Deck | playable | unsupported |
| Released | 2013 | 1987 |
| Developer | Ubisoft Romania | MicroProse |
Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag vs Sid Meier's Pirates!, 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
Assassin's Creed IV: Black FlagAction-adventure action-RPG gameSid Meier's Pirates!Fighting open-world gameWhat each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.
How it plays
Assassin's Creed IV: Black FlagPirates, Open World, AssassinSid Meier's Pirates!Pirates, Open World, RPGThe tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.
Reception
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ✓Score 7.8 · 88% on SteamSid Meier's Pirates!Score 7.7 · 94% on Steam · 88 criticThe GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.
Content and scale
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag78,523 reviews · 30 GBSid Meier's Pirates!7,535 reviewsReach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.
Price
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag$39.99Sid Meier's Pirates! ✓$9.99Read live from Steam and subject to change.
On a Steam Deck
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag ✓PlayableSid Meier's Pirates!UnsupportedValve's own Deck compatibility rating.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag takes 2 of the marked rounds to 1. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.
The two on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Sid Meier's Pirates! on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.
2 games have both
Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.
Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.
- Multi-platform
- Nintendo
Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.
How positions are decided
No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
- Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
- Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
- No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
- A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
- Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.
Which to pick, by what you want
- The cheaper right now: Sid Meier's Pirates! ($9.99)
- Better on a Steam Deck: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (playable)
- The safer bet by weight of reviews: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (78,523 reviews)
What they have in common
Both are tagged by Steam players with:
PiratesOpen WorldAdventureActionNavalHistoricalSingleplayerExploration
Where they differ
AssassinStealthParkourThird PersonMultiplayerStory Rich
SailingSandboxStrategyClassicEconomyRemake
Tags players apply to one game and not the other.
Difficulty and who each is for
By the tags players apply, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Sid Meier's Pirates! is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.
System requirements, side by side
| Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | Sid Meier's Pirates! | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum GPU | Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 | — |
| Minimum CPU | Intel Core2Quad Q8400 @ 2.6 GHz | — |
| Minimum RAM | 2 GB | — |
| Install size | 30 GB | — |
Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag · Sid Meier's Pirates!.
Accessibility features
Steam store pages declare 2 accessibility features for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and 0 for Sid Meier's Pirates!. A declaration is a floor, not a review.
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Common questions
How different are Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Sid Meier's Pirates! in scope?
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has drawn 78,523 Steam reviews and installs in 30 GB. Sid Meier's Pirates! has drawn 7,535 Steam reviews.
Is Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag or Sid Meier's Pirates! better?
By the GamingPickz Score, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag rates higher (7.8 to 7.7). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.
Which is cheaper, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag or Sid Meier's Pirates!?
Sid Meier's Pirates! is cheaper right now at $9.99, against $39.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.
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
How 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.