Galactic Civilizations III
Build a civilization that will stand the test of time in the largest space-based strategy game ever! Choose from dozens of unique races and make a name for yourself across the galaxy through diplomacy, espionage, technological advances, and more.
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
- 2015
- Developer
- Stardock Entertainment
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- 81
- Steam Deck
- playable
- Download
- 12 GB
What is Galactic Civilizations III?
Build a civilization that will stand the test of time in the largest space-based strategy game ever! Choose from dozens of unique races and make a name for yourself across the galaxy through diplomacy, espionage, technological advances, and more.
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 | 13 May 2015 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Stardock Entertainment |
| Publisher | Stardock Entertainment |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | Sandbox, Strategy |
| Languages | 4 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata , seeded TBA. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was Galactic Civilizations III 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 | Steam Workshop |
| Online play | Yes |
| In-game purchases | No |
| Steam Deck | playable |
| Download size | 12 GB |
| Add-on content | 17 DLC 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 Galactic Civilizations III worth it?
77% of 10,391 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mostly Positive. It costs $29.99 on Steam, and critics score it 81/100. About 161 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 Galactic Civilizations III? How long to beat it
Total play time for Galactic Civilizations III is about 54.9 hours to do everything, and around 27.2 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 | 27.2h | 5 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 37.1h | 6 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 54.9h | 1 |
At its current price of $29.99, beating the main story works out to about $1.10 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 Galactic Civilizations III sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueGalactic Civilizations III 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 Galactic Civilizations III still active? Players right now
Galactic Civilizations III has a small, niche following: 161 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 Galactic Civilizations III
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.
Estimated sales for Galactic Civilizations III
These are estimates, not reported figures. Stardock Entertainment has not published unit sales for Galactic Civilizations III, and nobody outside the company can measure them. What follows is arithmetic on the review count, with the method printed below so you can check it or reject it.
How this was calculated
Steam sales track review counts closely enough that dividing one by the other across games with published figures gives a usable multiplier. This is the standard method for estimating sales from outside a publisher.
| Reviews on Steam | 10,391 |
|---|---|
| Sales per review | 30 to 60 |
| List price | $29.99 |
| Assumed average selling price | 33% to 66% of list |
| SteamSpy owner estimate | 1.0M–2.0M, a different measure, see below |
What this cannot tell you
Steam only. Console, Epic, GOG and retail sales are not in here. For a game that sold heavily on PlayStation this is a fraction of the real number.
The band is wide because the method is imprecise. Review rates vary with price, genre, launch era and how insistently a game asks. Published analyses put the ratio between 30 and 60 for paid games, and we show the whole range rather than picking a point in it.
The owner estimate above measures something else. SteamSpy counts accounts that have the game, which includes free weekends, bundles, giveaways and gifts. It sits higher than a sales figure for that reason, and the two are not alternative answers to the same question.
Revenue is the shakiest line. It assumes an average selling price well below list because most copies move in sales, and it ignores regional pricing, refunds, key resellers and whatever deal the publisher actually has with Valve. Treat it as an order of magnitude, not a figure.
If Stardock Entertainment publishes a real number we will use that instead and say where it came from. Our editorial policy covers how we handle figures we cannot verify.
Galactic Civilizations III price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: $29.99 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.
Latest Galactic Civilizations III updates & patch notes
Pulled from Galactic Civilizations III's own Steam feed on 5 September 2026. Posts marked as from the studio were written by the developer; the rest are articles Steam syndicated from elsewhere. Every one links to its source.
What readers say about Galactic Civilizations III
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.
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Galactic Civilizations III mods
Galactic Civilizations III supports Steam Workshop, and the 20 most-installed mods have 238,593 subscribers between them. The most installed is Imperial Star Destroyer.
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 Galactic Civilizations III appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Galactic Civilizations III qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Games like Galactic Civilizations III
24 games overlap with Galactic Civilizations III on the tags Steam players applied to it, on genre, and on theme. The closest are ENDLESS Space 2, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion and ENDLESS Space - Definitive Edition.
Galactic Civilizations III head to head
See Galactic Civilizations III compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about Galactic Civilizations III
What platforms is Galactic Civilizations III on?
Galactic Civilizations III is available on PC. It first released in 2015.
How much does Galactic Civilizations III cost?
$29.99 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 Galactic Civilizations III?
77% of 10,391 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Mostly Positive. That is players rating it, not our review. We have not published a review of this game.
What is the Metacritic score for Galactic Civilizations III?
81 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.
Does Galactic Civilizations III work on Steam Deck?
Valve rates Galactic Civilizations III as playable on the Steam Deck, from its own testing.
How big is the Galactic Civilizations III download?
12 GB on PC, from the storage requirement on its Steam listing. Console versions differ.
Who made Galactic Civilizations III?
Galactic Civilizations III was developed by Stardock Entertainment and published by Stardock Entertainment.
Is Galactic Civilizations III worth it in 2026?
77% of 10,391 Steam reviews are positive (Mostly Positive), and it is $29.99 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 Galactic Civilizations III dead?
No. About 161 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 Galactic Civilizations III on sale?
Not at the moment. Galactic Civilizations III is at its $29.99 list price on Steam, read on 30 August 2026. It has been cheaper before; the price history above shows when.