Sid Meier's Civilization IV
With over 6 million units sold and unprecedented critical acclaim from fans and press around the world, Sid Meier's Civilization is recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all-time. Now, Sid Meier and Firaxis Games will take this incredibly fun and addictive game to new heights by adding new ways to play and win, new...
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- Released
- 2006
- Developer
- Firaxis Games
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- 94
- Steam Deck
- unknown
- Download
- Not stated
What is Sid Meier's Civilization IV?
With over 6 million units sold and unprecedented critical acclaim from fans and press around the world, Sid Meier's Civilization is recognized as one of the greatest PC game franchises of all-time. Now, Sid Meier and Firaxis Games will take this incredibly fun and addictive game to new heights by adding new ways to play and win, new...
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 | 24 October 2006 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Firaxis Games |
| Publisher | 2K |
| Platforms | PC |
| Genres | Simulation, Strategy |
| Languages | 5 supported |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata , seeded TBA. Store data from Steam, read 30 August 2026.
How was Sid Meier's Civilization IV 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV worth it?
95% of 57 Steam reviews are positive, which Steam rates Very Positive. It costs $19.99 on Steam, and critics score it 94/100. About 1 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV? How long to beat it
Total play time for Sid Meier's Civilization IV is about 133.5 hours to do everything, and around 13.5 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 | 13.5h | 60 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 46.6h | 37 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 133.5h | 8 |
At its current price of $19.99, beating the main story works out to about $1.48 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV sits on the grid
Compare the whole catalogueSid Meier's Civilization IV 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV still active? Players right now
Sid Meier's Civilization IV has a small, niche following: 1 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV
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.
Sid Meier's Civilization IV price & deals: is it on sale?
We have one reading so far: $19.99 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV
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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Where Sid Meier's Civilization IV appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Sid Meier's Civilization IV qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Games like Sid Meier's Civilization IV
24 games overlap with Sid Meier's Civilization IV on the tags Steam players applied to it, on genre, and on theme. The closest are Sid Meier's Civilization V, Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete and Total War: MEDIEVAL II – Definitive Edition.
Part of the Sid Meier's Civilization series
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is one of 7 Sid Meier's Civilization games we track. See the whole series ranked by the GamingPickz Score, plotted on the grid, and listed in release order:
Sid Meier's Civilization IV head to head
See Sid Meier's Civilization IV compared side by side, on score, price, specs and more:
Common questions about Sid Meier's Civilization IV
What platforms is Sid Meier's Civilization IV on?
Sid Meier's Civilization IV is available on PC. It first released in 2006.
How much does Sid Meier's Civilization IV cost?
$19.99 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV?
95% of 57 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV?
94 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV?
Sid Meier's Civilization IV was developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K.
Is Sid Meier's Civilization IV worth it in 2026?
95% of 57 Steam reviews are positive (Very Positive), and it is $19.99 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV dead?
No. About 1 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV on sale?
Not at the moment. Sid Meier's Civilization IV is at its $19.99 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 Sid Meier's Civilization IV?
about 13.5 hours for the main story, 46.6 hours with the main extras, 133.5 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.
Is Sid Meier's Civilization IV worth the money?
At $19.99 for about 13.5 hours to beat the main story, Sid Meier's Civilization IV works out to roughly $1.48 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.