Home / Games / Rule the Waves 3
Rule the Waves 3
Rule the Waves III is a simulation of naval ship design and construction, fleet management and naval warfare from 1890 to 1970.
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 2026-05-13.
What reviewers agree on
49 of the 71 reviews raise this.
“I really want to like this game, and it has its moments, but its just not worth it. The designing process and macromanagement aspect are really nice, but the second it comes to war, this game turns into a CBT simulator.…”
“Concept is great, ship designer is great, but the battle generator ruins it all. You surprise an inferior enemy... that has a vastly more powerful fleet. You organise ships into squadrons that are then ignored. You…”
“The bones of this look very promising, but the complete lack of UI/UX basics is hard to understand. e.g. one shouldn't be able to select technologies that aren't researched yet, e.g. selecting DD as a class should…”
5 of the 71 reviews raise this.
“Best spreadsheets i have ever seen”
“GAME IS GREAT VERY GOOD EXCEL NAVAL SIMULATOR”
5 of the 71 reviews raise this.
“This game is everything Admiral Dreadnaughts wanted to be but more. While looking fairly complex, the gameplay loop is actually very simple, and you can get by with autobuilding most ships and tweaking designs to fit…”
“Very strategic game, and Harpoon type action. If you are looking for great graphics, move along. If you want a situation room tactical sandbox and love to design ships and alternatate history, you'll love it. Be…”
“If you ever played around with the old program Springsharp, RtW basically provides that Tsushima to Leyte Gulf experience. However, it also adds a level of simplified grand strategy and a rather detailed tactical…”
12 of the 71 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“I really want to like this game, and it has its moments, but its just not worth it. The designing process and macromanagement aspect are really nice, but the second it comes to war, this game turns into a CBT simulator.…”
“Concept is great, ship designer is great, but the battle generator ruins it all. You surprise an inferior enemy... that has a vastly more powerful fleet. You organise ships into squadrons that are then ignored. You…”
“It starts as a decent game but its a lie, once you get past the novelty of it you realise its basically just a less rewarding gambling addiction, RNG controls everything in this game and its really biased against the…”
11 of the 71 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“The idea is amazing, but this is incredibly outdated, especially for the cost”
“Rule the Waves 3 looks like Wikipedia and Excel had a kid… and then left it alone in a room full of warships. You boot it up and it’s just menus, numbers, charts, more numbers… like damn, where’s the “game”? But then it…”
“It's one of the worst pieces of software that I've seen. Game have a decent simulator, all RNG based, which is not a bad thing, but it has nothing to do with real physics and real ships. But the implementation, omg.…”
10 of the 71 reviews raise this · 7 of them still recommend the game.
“I really want to like this game, and it has its moments, but its just not worth it. The designing process and macromanagement aspect are really nice, but the second it comes to war, this game turns into a CBT simulator.…”
“It starts as a decent game but its a lie, once you get past the novelty of it you realise its basically just a less rewarding gambling addiction, RNG controls everything in this game and its really biased against the…”
“No tutorials on how to play the campaign. They want to charge you $40 but don't want you to learn the game. The battles are kind of boring no different than Steam and Iron but at least I can play that game out of the…”
6 of the 71 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“Fix flooding ships killing themselves by going full speed when entering AI mode”
“This game is surely not pleasing to the eye. However with it's multiple features of designing ships and a combat system( that will surely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kill you if you screw up ) makes this game one that is fun to play. Most…”
“It's good, but frustratingly not as good as it could be. There's a stream of small bugs and inconveniences that aren't game breaking but do take some of the shine off. Also, AI ship captains often make some extremely…”
5 of the 71 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“The bones of this look very promising, but the complete lack of UI/UX basics is hard to understand. e.g. one shouldn't be able to select technologies that aren't researched yet, e.g. selecting DD as a class should…”
“It's one of the worst pieces of software that I've seen. Game have a decent simulator, all RNG based, which is not a bad thing, but it has nothing to do with real physics and real ships. But the implementation, omg.…”
“The ui takes more than a little getting used to, but if you can get past it you'll find a top-tier strategy game.”
Counted across 71 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 87.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-13
“to me, over 1000 hours in this game, all i can say is it is everything i wanted, is it perfect?, no...is anything? is it what i enjoy?, yes...is that not what you want in a game? so that is my review”
— a player, Steam review · 1,628 hrs played“spent 3 years building a brand new flagship as japan in 1920 with the highest technology of the time. war with china. deploy my battleship line, 20 strong, to face their 5 bbs, 2 cls, and 1 dd. their one dd speeds through my line at like 40 knots fires one torpedo sunk the next…”
— a player, Steam review · 31 hrs played“If Microsoft excel was this addictive I would have been an extremely productive member of the society.”
— a player, Steam review · 85 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 2026-07-25. 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.
Regular Update 1.01.44
With 1.01.44 we bring a minor update that includes additions to ship design, QOL improvements, and bug fixes. Here are the highlights: High position ship design option for improved long-range accuracy
The Refit Update available now
A new update for Rule the Waves 3 is now available, focused on improving stability and refining several core systems following the release of the Expanded Battles expansion. This patch introduces a se
Rule the waves 3: Expanded Battles is out now
The naval strategy sim Rule the Waves 3 has a new DLC, Expanded Battles , now available. The expansion adds historical scenarios, a ship and scenario editor, and a Quick Battles mode to instantly gene
Rule the Waves 3: Expanded Battles | Dev Diary 5
Quick Battles This of course meant including a scenario designer for players who want to get into the nitty-gritty details of designing their ideal historical or fictional engagement. The flipside of
Tactics Update is out now
Hello wargamers, naval historians, and ship enthusiasts! We have a new update available before the release of the new DLC. Update highlights: - This update lays the groundwork for the release of Expan
Games like Rule the Waves 3
From our knowledge graph — ranked by shared traits, not a black box. Each card says why it's here.
Supreme Ruler Ultimate
75.5% · 895 reviews
shares World War I, Cold War, World War II, Alternate History
Axis & Allies 1942 Online
78.4% · 4,498 reviews
shares World War I, Naval, World War II, Wargame
Cold Waters
87.2% · 3,562 reviews
shares Naval Combat, Cold War, Naval, Wargame
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game
89.9% · 1,125 reviews
shares World War I, Cold War, World War II, Wargame
Hearts of Iron III
77.0% · 3,277 reviews
shares World War I, World War II, Alternate History, Wargame
NavalArt
90.5% · 871 reviews
shares World War I, Naval Combat, Naval, World War II
Unity of Command II
80.1% · 1,214 reviews
shares World War II, Alternate History, Wargame, Military
Destroyer: The U-Boat Hunter
74.6% · 641 reviews
shares Naval Combat, Naval, World War II, Wargame
Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-13.
| Genres | Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | Simulation · Wargame · Naval · Military · Strategy · Naval Combat · Singleplayer · Alternate History · 2D · Management · Cold War · World War I (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Steam Cloud · Family Sharing |
| Languages | English |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows 11, can work on Windows 10, but not officially supported Processor: 1.2 GHz min, 2.4+ GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: No minimum requirement (no hardware video acceleration is required) DirectX: Version 9.0 Storage: 1 GB available space