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Captain of Industry
Build an industrial empire on a remote island. Mine resources, reshape terrain with excavators, grow food, construct factories, lay train tracks, and trade with the outside world. Research 100+ technologies to advance from basic metal smelting all the way to nuclear power and space flight.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-09-02 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
87 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This is actually a fantastic game, but I have to set it to not recommended. I cannot in good faith recommend a game in early access that releases paid DLC. That is wrong and frankly steam should not allow it.”
“factorio>satisfactory>dyson sphere>captain of industry. the best 4 automation game”
“This game is amazing, if you enjoy factory sim games as I do, this is right up that alley with some added industrial realism and the need to maintain a colony of people. A lot of the recipes are intertwined and…”
18 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This is one of the classics I constantly come back to in my library. The devs are also continually improving the game past the point of greatness and beyond all my expectations. The bug fixes and performance updates are…”
“Keeps getting BETTER & BETTER & BETTER & BETTER .....”
“This game is awesome. There are a lot of reviews about DLC but they are worth it and these developers keep adding more content. Launched my first rocket after about 1000hrs of play time! The game is polished and could…”
13 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This game is amazing, if you enjoy factory sim games as I do, this is right up that alley with some added industrial realism and the need to maintain a colony of people. A lot of the recipes are intertwined and…”
“Holy omfg is this thing frustrating af at the very beginning, but after giving it a little time.. it really opens up into a super satisfying game. Copy and pasting builds is awesome, saves so much time. This is a great…”
“Spectacular game. Build complexity is nice. Trains are fun (except adding refueling stops to all lines). The game encourages redoing old builds through upgraded buildings and processes which is also quite nice. Small…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“I like the performance and how scaling doesn't involve building 1000 factories but rather more complex production chains. Optimisation is never complete. 10/10”
“If you enjoy factory building games (like Production Line, Blueprint Tycoon, Space Engineers, etc), then you'll enjoy this game. It seems to run and play fine on the Steam Deck with a mouse and keyboard.”
“---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“1500 hours in and yeah its REALLY good. Its a slow game, where you can take your time, plan, think and execute. You will always have to tear things out, redo it, that is the fun! Eventually you start to run out of…”
“This game is awesome. There are a lot of reviews about DLC but they are worth it and these developers keep adding more content. Launched my first rocket after about 1000hrs of play time! The game is polished and could…”
“High recommend. Unique. Factory builder that doesn't really feel like a factory builder. Massive amount of content - and it's still not released. Don't listen to the entitled gamers whining about the DLC. The game has…”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“The developers banned a modder that makes THE most crucial mod for the entire game. Without this mod (COI Extended) there's literally no point in playing the game anymore. Also, pushing paid DLCs while still in Early…”
“This is actually a fantastic game, but I have to set it to not recommended. I cannot in good faith recommend a game in early access that releases paid DLC. That is wrong and frankly steam should not allow it.”
“This is a really great game. I understand the concerns about the DLC, but honestly, the base game already has an overwhelming amount of content.”
7 of the 103 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“Good teaching tool / War should not be a part of the game play.”
“Captain of Industry is a factory/management game that’s definitely worth checking out, especially if you enjoy titles like Factorio or other automation-based games. At the beginning, the experience can feel a bit slow…”
“Spectacular game. Build complexity is nice. Trains are fun (except adding refueling stops to all lines). The game encourages redoing old builds through upgraded buildings and processes which is also quite nice. Small…”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“The developers banned a modder that makes THE most crucial mod for the entire game. Without this mod (COI Extended) there's literally no point in playing the game anymore. Also, pushing paid DLCs while still in Early…”
“It amazes me when a developer goes against their own community and the ones that go above and beyond to support their work by creating FREE mods for the community. This creators are contributing with their time and…”
“Game was great until the devs banned the use of mods and provided no way to be able to play without them for existing games unless you stay on legacy versions. Don't understand why mods are banned when there are many…”
5 of the 103 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Super fun and very well made. balancing can be a pain but that's what I signed up for by liking games with extra realism.”
“Excellent Game. Can be brain Draining creating all the factories along the way, but you spend 30hrs making all that, so you can play the real game later (mid/lategame) that is Terraformining the map 😂”
“If you like Factorio, Satisfactory or other factory games you'll adore this one. I lose DAYS in it! The only problem I have is that I get totally confused as I scale up. LOL”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“COI was one of the best in the genre before trains and other recent updates. After, it's even better. The most valid complaint is that space is just a UI window. The reviews crying about a DLC with different train types…”
“If you like games like Anno 1800 and Satisfactory/Factorio/automation games in general: this is a gem. It does automation in a nice way which requires you to balance out what you are gathering and producing. You also…”
“Not even to mid game on my first play and hooked. There are a few things that'd make the players life easier. Most QoL things that I have noticed but overall so far an amazing game,”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 90.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“So many incorrect reviews being posted here from accounts with 10 hours in the game. 1) The devs did break mod compatibility with the latest update because they were extending and improving the long-term mod support in the game. This made one popular modder upset and he briefly…”
— a player, Steam review · 553 hrs played“The best factory automation game, the best base builder game, the best resource management game, the best strategy game I've ever played. There's so much to do in this game, it's ridiculous. The amount of production chains to build is enormous. The research tree is enormous,…”
— a player, Steam review · 115 hrs played“How do you get it in your head as a studio to start locking away gameplay features behind a paywall when the main game is still in early access and not even remotely finished??? If you need money so badly then go sell cosmetics and the fans will buy it purely to support the…”
— a player, Steam review · 148 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-09-10). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Patch notes for v0.8.7b
Simulation determinism * All simulation math now runs on a pure-integer arithmetic, so results are bit-identical across CPU vendors and machines. * Fixed vehicle path-finding that could finish on diff
Patch notes for v0.8.7a
* Added new 3D models for T1/T2 Electrolyzers. * Optimized truck buffer balancing when storages or dumping designations are cut off from trucks, which caused FPS drops at high sim speeds (over 10x fas
Patch notes for v0.8.7
New content and improvements * Modular ramps can now go up to height 4, being able to go above train tracks. * Vehicles now approach ramps slightly faster. * Trade dock cargo is now included in the gl
Patch notes for v0.8.6b and v0.8.6c
v0.8.6b * Fixed a possible game freeze in highlight rendering and restored the tower highlight on area hover that was temporarily disabled because of it. * Fixed transport highlights that could get st
Patch notes for v0.8.6a
* Improved belt graphics to make the belt direction more visible. * Temporarily disabled the tower highlight when hovering its area to prevent a game freeze/crash. * Fixed train station modules disapp
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Early Access |
| Player tags | Base-Building · Automation · Resource Management · Management · Simulation · Economy · Mining · City Builder · Survival · Colony Sim · Strategy · Realistic (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Adjustable Text Size · Camera Comfort · Custom Volume Controls · Adjustable Difficulty · Mouse Only Option · Playable without Timed Input · Save Anytime |
| Languages | English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Hungarian, Catalan, Estonian, Turkish, Traditional Chinese, Ukrainian |
| Official site | https://www.captain-of-industry.com/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 or newer Processor: Dual-core CPU @3.0 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Dedicated graphics card, GTX 770 2GB Storage: 3 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX compatible