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Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Sid Meier's Civilization IV®: Beyond the Sword is the second expansion pack for Civilization IV - the 2005 PC Game of the Year that has become a worldwide hit.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Score via Steam as of 2026-08-31 · quoted reviews as of 2026-05-12.
What reviewers agree on
73 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This is the hardest Civilization game and the best one with a grid‑style map. It’s a really good game! The developers keep moving forward with newer Civ titles, but I’m still happy to stay with Civ IV and V.”
“Genuinely one of the most enjoyable stratigy games I have every played. The point system and abilty to name cities makes it very fun to play with friends, even for casuals such as myself. This game has only one flaw,…”
“Been playing Civ since 1997. Civ 4 is the best version ever. It's the last time they took their time and did it right.”
18 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Deleted 12 hours like it was nothing just like when it was new. This game has aged incredibly well, interface and hotkeys are well designed, the map is much more readable than later games, and the mods like Realism…”
“fall from heaven 2 is a great mod”
“One of the best games ever, played for 20 years”
9 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“This is the hardest Civilization game and the best one with a grid‑style map. It’s a really good game! The developers keep moving forward with newer Civ titles, but I’m still happy to stay with Civ IV and V.”
“An awesome Civ IV expansion that juices up the late game with spies, corps, and fresh techs. It's made for players who dig endless replay and outsmarting the AI over marathon sessions. Casuals might get lost in it tho.…”
“This game is a lot of fun, and can easily be played by beginners with just a little bit of checking out how things work, all the way up to playing in a very difficult level. It's tons of fun, but also a little…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“Deleted 12 hours like it was nothing just like when it was new. This game has aged incredibly well, interface and hotkeys are well designed, the map is much more readable than later games, and the mods like Realism…”
“I haven't played it since it came out and it is as good as new, better maybe.”
“This is my favorite Civ game, starting with 1 and ending with 6, never tried 7. I like the stacks-of-doom and the square movement grid. Using the Bug mod and tweaking the font files the interface is easy to read with a…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this.
“expansion does not have 2gb ram failure the base game has. plus it has a ton of new features. did a run on 18civsearth hudge map, and enjoyed it all the way. and yes it took 32 h to complete marathon run”
6 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“Genuinely one of the most enjoyable stratigy games I have every played. The point system and abilty to name cities makes it very fun to play with friends, even for casuals such as myself. This game has only one flaw,…”
“the ai ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cheats dude”
“So I've liked it enough to stick with it for twenty four hours or so of play, so I feel I have to give it a thumbs up, but it still isn't very fun. It seems gormless, and doesn't offer the information I need when I need…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 4 of them still recommend the game.
“Up there with Europa Universalis 4 I'd say this is one of my most played games of all time. I've probably played this game for many thousands of hours. Especially the 1000ad scenario. I've played every faction many…”
“So I've liked it enough to stick with it for twenty four hours or so of play, so I feel I have to give it a thumbs up, but it still isn't very fun. It seems gormless, and doesn't offer the information I need when I need…”
4 of the 103 reviews raise this · 2 of them still recommend the game.
“So I've liked it enough to stick with it for twenty four hours or so of play, so I feel I have to give it a thumbs up, but it still isn't very fun. It seems gormless, and doesn't offer the information I need when I need…”
3 of the 103 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“This is the first game my dad got me into, also it the first game I ever bought a duel monitor setup for, cause if your playing withs mods the turns are sloooow but that how I like to play max civs, giant pangea and…”
Counted across 103 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 96.2% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“To me, Civ4 BTS is peak Civ, which means that it is peak gaming. Civ4 is sufficiently modern to not be a pain in the ass (like Civ3), yet it is sufficiently old to preserve its aspiration to simulate the human history, and not simply be a soulless board game. I bought it when it…”
— a player, Steam review · 98 hrs played“Still one of the best civ-games . Best with C2C-mod.”
— a player, Steam review · 578 hrs played“Sid Meier's Civ IV games are still the very best of the Civ collections. The newer ones; Civ V and up to current are too slow of game action.”
— a player, Steam review · 7,911 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 (2026-09-04). 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.
Take One More Turn in Civilization VI
We’re excited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Civilization franchise by announcing Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, the next entry in the award-winning turn-based strategy franchise. Be sure to f
Take One More Turn in Civilization VI
We’re excited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Civilization franchise by announcing Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, the next entry in the award-winning turn-based strategy franchise. Be sure to f
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-12.
| Genres | Strategy |
| Player tags | Strategy · Turn-Based Strategy · 4X · Turn-Based · Historical · Singleplayer · Multiplayer · Moddable · Grand Strategy · Classic · Replay Value · Education (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English, French, German, Italian, Spanish - Spain |
| Official site | http://www.2kgames.com/civ4/beyondthesword/ |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: Windows 2000 (plus Service Pack 1 or higher), Windows XP Home or Professional (plus Service Pack 1 or higher), or Windows Vista; 1.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor, 256 MB RAM, 64 MB video card with hardware T&L (GeForce 2, Radeon 7500 or better), DirectX 7 compatible sound card, 1.7 GB of free hard drive space, DirectX 9.0c (included) Recommended: 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon processor or equivalent (or better), 512 MB RAM, 128 MB video card with DirectX 8 support (pixel and vertex shaders), DirectX 7 compatible sound card, 1.7 GB of free hard drive space, DirectX