Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Sid Meier's Civilization IV®: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack for Civilization IV - the 2005 PC Game of the Year that has become a worldwide hit.
Your like matters. Every heart nudges this game's GamingPickz Score and where it ranks (a small 5% of the score), so the lists get better for everyone.
- Released
- 2007
- Developer
- Firaxis Games
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- 86
- Steam Deck
- unknown
- Download
- Not stated
What is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword?
Sid Meier's Civilization IV®: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack for Civilization IV - the 2005 PC Game of the Year that has become a worldwide hit.
Description as published by the developer on its own store page, read 30 August 2026. It is marketing copy, not our assessment.
The record
| First released | 23 July 2007 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Firaxis Games |
| Publisher | 2K |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | Strategy |
| Languages | 5 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata , seeded TBA. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword received?
Method. Player figures are Steam's own totals for the PC version, read 30 August 2026. The Metacritic score is the one Steam publishes on its store page and can lag the site itself. Metacritic page. Neither is our opinion. We have not published a review of this game.
What does it support?
| Capability | Support |
|---|---|
| Controller | Not stated |
| Cloud saves | No |
| Cross-platform play | No |
| Mod support | No official workshop |
| Online play | Single-player only |
| In-game purchases | No |
| Steam Deck | unknown |
| Download size | Not stated |
| Add-on content | None listed |
| Age gate | None |
Method. Read from the publisher's Steam listing on 30 August 2026. Describes the PC version. Console versions differ.
What does it cost?
Steam price in US dollars, read 30 August 2026. Prices move hourly and vary by region. Check the current price.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword worth it?
97% of 67 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. It costs $9.99 on Steam, and critics score it 86/100. About 5 people were playing at once when we last checked, so it is still active.
That is the data, not a verdict for sale: whether it is worth it depends on the price you pay and what you want. We have not published our own review of this game.
How long is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword? How long to beat it
Total play time for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is about 100.4 hours to do everything, and around 30.9 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 30.9h | 16 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 70.2h | 11 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 100.4h | 4 |
At its current price of $9.99, beating the main story works out to about $0.32 per hour. That is the price divided by the hours, a value read and not a verdict: a longer game costs less per hour, which is not the same as being the better game.
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueCivilization IV: Beyond the Sword plotted on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so its position is its real one. Change either axis to see where it lands.
1 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.
- PC
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.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword still active? Players right now
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword has a small, niche following: 5 people were playing at once when we last read Steam on 19 October 2026. This is a snapshot, not a live counter, and it is a recent concurrent reading rather than an all-time record. For what is trending across the catalogue right now, see the pulse.
How many people own Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
This is an estimate, not a sales figure, and the two are not interchangeable. SteamSpy samples public profiles and publishes a range; the range here spans a factor of 2.0, and that width is the honest part of it. We show both ends rather than a midpoint, because a midpoint would look like a measurement.
Steam only. Console and storefront sales are not counted, so a game that sold heavily elsewhere reads low here. Read on 19 October 2026. Where a publisher has announced a real unit figure, that appears separately and carries its source.
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: $9.99 on 30 August 2026. Prices are checked daily from here, and this becomes a chart once there is more than one point to join. A single observation is a price, not a history.
What readers say about Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
Loading reviews…
Did it run on your PC?
Tell other players how it ran on your machine. One tap, from your saved PC if you have one.
Where Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
Get the weekly rundown
One email a week: what moved in the rankings, what launched, and what dropped in price. No more than that, and unsubscribing takes one click.
We send the weekly email and nothing else. Your address is never sold, shared or used to build a profile, and it is not readable by anyone visiting this site. See our privacy policy.
Games like Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
24 games overlap with Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword on the tags Steam players applied to it, on genre, and on theme. The closest are Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Sid Meier's Civilization V and Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete.
Common questions about Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
What platforms is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword on?
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is available on PC. It first released in 2007.
How much does Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword cost?
$9.99 on Steam in the United States, read on 30 August 2026. Prices move often and vary by region, so check the store before buying.
Do players recommend Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword?
97% of 67 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
What is the Metacritic score for Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword?
86 out of 100 for the PC version, as published on the game's own Steam store page. Steam can lag Metacritic by a few points.
Who made Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword?
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword worth it in 2026?
97% of 67 Steam reviews are positive (Very Positive), and it is $9.99 on steam. That is the strongest signal we hold; "worth it" depends on the price you pay and what you want, so weigh the sentiment against the current price above.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword dead?
No. About 5 people were in-game at once when we last read Steam's concurrent-player figure. Peak activity is higher; this is a recent snapshot, not the all-time peak.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword on sale?
Not at the moment. Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword is at its $9.99 list price on Steam, read on 30 August 2026. It has been cheaper before; the price history above shows when.
How long does it take to beat Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword?
about 30.9 hours for the main story, 70.2 hours with the main extras, 100.4 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.
Is Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword worth the money?
At $9.99 for about 30.9 hours to beat the main story, Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword works out to roughly $0.32 per hour. That is a value read, not a verdict: a longer game costs less per hour, which is not the same as being better. Weigh it against the review sentiment above.