4. Sid Meier's Civilization 5. 11 best-selling strategy games ever
- 11 Best-selling Strategy Games Ever
- 10. Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
- 9. Command & Conquer
- 8. Stellaris
- 7. Total War: Three Kingdoms
- 6. SimCity 3000
- 5. Cities: Skylines
- 4. Sid Meier's Civilization 5
- 3. Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings
- 2. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
- 1. StarCraft
4. Sid Meier's Civilization 5
- Developer: Firaxis Games
- Year: 2010
- Estimated number of copies sold: 8 million
Civilization did not manage to make it to the podium in the single game category, but as a series, it absolutely outclasses everyone, totaling some 57 million copies sold, a whopping number by any measure. The game that's largely responsible for this score is Civilization 5, released in 2010. The fifth installment of the famous and extremely addictive formula – developing your civilization from prehistoric times to space travel, has completely crushed any competition, with its Metacritic average at 90/100, based on 70 reviews.
This translated into serious sales results, but no installment of this series had a problem here. According to various sources, the amount of copies sold is at least 8 million, but this figure is outdated, based on two different reasons. The first is, of course, that the game has probably increased its sales from the time this information was released, and the second – it is possible that the last, sixth, installment of the cycle has already managed to overtake its predecessor.
Civilization 6 on top?
Some time ago, the publisher boasted that Civilization 6 is the fastest-selling part of the series, achieving high results much faster than the previous title. In 2019, it boasted over 6.5 million copies sold – in three years from its premiere. Taking into account new DLCs that keep the game updated and the popularity of the series, which surely increased during the Covid-19 pandemic, we can safely assume that this amount was surpassed enough to exceed the "five."
