Sid Meier's Civilization VI
Games review
As of Oct 15, 2026, Sid Meier's Civilization VI is rated 88/100 on Metacritic (91 critic reviews), and 86% positive on Steam (380,304 reviews). Each source is shown in its own units, never blended into one score.
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Is Sid Meier's Civilization VI worth it in 2026?
Sid Meier's Civilization VI holds an 88/100 on Metacritic across 91 critic reviews and an 86% positive rating from more than 380,000 Steam reviews. Sampled reviewers highlight its addictive gameplay, deep strategic depth, and high replayability, alongside mechanics like districts and quality expansions. However, computer-controlled opponents draw criticism, with sampled players reporting weak artificial intelligence and one noting a heavy dependency on mods to improve it. Furthermore, while multiplayer is cited as enjoyable by some, other reviewers point to frustrating connectivity drops alongside reports of crashes and cloud save issues. Overall, it delivers substantial strategic engagement, provided you are prepared for possible technical hurdles and flawed opponent AI.
Players seeking an absorbing strategy game with deep mechanics, quality expansions, and high replayability.
Weak artificial intelligence, potential reliance on mods, and technical frustrations such as multiplayer desyncs and crashes.
AI-generated editorial synthesis of the source scores and sampled review themes, not a hands-on test. Reviewer experiences and allegations are not independently verified facts.
Pros
- addictive gameplay6
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- Downloaded Civilization VI thinking I’d play for an hour. 6 hours later, it’s 3 AM, I’m at war with 4 different countries, my economy is collapsing, and Gandhi is somehow threaten...
- Addictive. Fantastic multiplayer game. If you know, you know.
- This game started out as a headache to learn all the different and complicated mechanics as a new player. But it is now a time machine, i started a game in the afternoon and 5 minu...
- deep strategic depth5
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- # 10,848 Hours Played, And I'd Still Recommend It Without Hesitation There are games you play, games you finish, and games that become a permanent part of your gaming life. **C...
- Excellenth depth and historical interest, works really well on linux
- With all the expansions, few 4X games strike this balance of "easy enough to get into" and "deep enough to spend hours watching YouTube videos about various strategies and how to b...
- high replayability4
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- # 10,848 Hours Played, And I'd Still Recommend It Without Hesitation There are games you play, games you finish, and games that become a permanent part of your gaming life. **C...
- Great game, gives hours upon hours of entertainment, I still enjoy it and I have had the game for 7 years now. I am also able to run it on my laptop, which is by no stretch of the...
- This game is incredible. It never gets boring and with friends it's astonishing how amazing this game is. Please buy this game. Also if its on sale, it will be five bucks. Top 5 p...
- enjoyable multiplayer4
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- Addictive. Fantastic multiplayer game. If you know, you know.
- At 457 hours in the game, I consider myself to be a master already. I can beat Deity the highest difficulty with any Civ and then I tried multiplayer... I could just barely keep up...
- This game is incredible. It never gets boring and with friends it's astonishing how amazing this game is. Please buy this game. Also if its on sale, it will be five bucks. Top 5 p...
- quality expansions4
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- Possibly the greatest Civ game ever made. I've put many hundreds of hours in Civ III, IV, and V but this is the crown jewel of the series. Gameplay, graphics, political structure,...
- [h1] Great game overall, maybe the best civ [h1] pros: - keeps the best parts of the previous games - new district mechanic is nice - expansions really add up to the game -...
- With all the expansions, few 4X games strike this balance of "easy enough to get into" and "deep enough to spend hours watching YouTube videos about various strategies and how to b...
- district mechanics3
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- If you get over the purist's view that districts and builders having charges are bad, you're gonna have a great time. The art style really grew on me, and while Civ 5 and previ...
- [h1] Great game overall, maybe the best civ [h1] pros: - keeps the best parts of the previous games - new district mechanic is nice - expansions really add up to the game -...
- full transparency, i have been a Civ fan since '92. i have bought & enjoyed every title they have released. 6 was the first real shift in the formula, breaking out the districts e...
Cons
- poor artificial intelligence3
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- Even for the 2016 this looked like very poorly made adaptation of legendary series, introduced a bunch of completely useless mechanics that bloats the gameplay with unreadable moda...
- its money hungry and ai is really bad at anything so you need mods to fix them also heavily dependent on mods to play fun realistic games where you actually get to use all eras so...
- My favorite civ, even if the AI is pretty dumb in warfare. Game is visually solid, without too much clutter after a brief ramp up.
Themes and quotes are drawn from 37 sampled reviews with text. Each score above uses its source's displayed count. Theme counts are how many of the sampled reviews mention each point.
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