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Victoria 3
Paradox Development Studio invites you to build your ideal society in the tumult of the exciting and transformative 19th century. Balance the competing interests in your society and earn your place in the sun in Victoria 3, one of the most anticipated games in Paradox’s history.
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
32 of the 105 reviews raise this.
“Victoria 3 is, at its core, one of the most ambitious and detailed political and societal simulators ever made. Few games even attempt to model the interplay between population, economy, and politics at this scale and…”
“If you want a Macro Strategy game, where wars are won with logistics instead of micro-management where you get to learn how the world economy works and interacts with each country. This is the game for you.”
“I really, really want to like vic3. It's such a cool period in history, and on first impression the game seems really deep and replayable and exciting. It's presentation is top notch, full of style, and you'll learn…”
8 of the 105 reviews raise this.
“Vic 3 had a really rough launch, but after a few years of support it is an absolute gem. Everything makes sense, everything works. It simluates som really emergent stuff. If this sort of game interests you at all it's…”
“The game has gotten wayyyyy better since i purched it. Grand Stat. Hecka complicated but worth it. Watch people play before you buy... Not every DLC is good but the good one's you can usually tell.”
“it took quite some time and many updates. but asa person that is 2k hours in Victoria 2. This game (with mods) surpasses it. And while there are still many things left to improve so far the devs have only made the game…”
6 of the 105 reviews raise this.
“I really, really want to like vic3. It's such a cool period in history, and on first impression the game seems really deep and replayable and exciting. It's presentation is top notch, full of style, and you'll learn…”
“It has the most gorgeous map and astetic. Navigating the menus, watching your territories develop is very pleasing, immersive. The problem is the release of broken DLCs with game-breaking bugs, an increasing backlog of…”
“This game is way too complicated for beginners. I tried watching a 20-minute YouTube tutorial, but when I played, the UI was different, so I could not find anything. The in-game tutorial feels useless: things happen,…”
5 of the 105 reviews raise this.
“I've spent a good amount of time in this game so far and I have to say it grew on me. I've played Vic 2 for a few minutes before quitting out of confusion, but this game was able to draw me back in. It has its flaws for…”
“This game is not yet in a playable state and it never will be. I read the reviews, waited for it to download and load and read how the game works and let it run for a minute. Then I turned it off and uninstalled and had…”
“Finally this has become the best Parodox game. Enough complexity to keep playing but easy enough too learn in a few hours. Every DLC adds so much even in the base game.”
4 of the 105 reviews raise this.
“Vic 3 had a really rough launch, but after a few years of support it is an absolute gem. Everything makes sense, everything works. It simluates som really emergent stuff. If this sort of game interests you at all it's…”
“It had a rough launch, but luckily it came before Paradox's Dark age just before a bunch of their games got cancelled, delayed, or broken (Life by You, Prison Architect, CS2). It is a clear improvement over VIC2, I see…”
“While it may not be perfect by any means, I love the depth of the economic and political simulations that this game offers. Definitely recommend, especially on sale.”
32 of the 105 reviews raise this · 16 of them still recommend the game.
“The new patch introduced wayyyyy too many new bugs that break the economy and the military (Ottomans are beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of Britain in 1840, for once). Ranches in Japan are owned by Sweden??? Or the fact that the…”
“I loved this game when it came out... But now its a UX, buggy nightmare. The land combat front system, which i quite like the concept of initially, after many iterations, is now an illogical buggy mess, with frequent…”
“This game is best suited for individuals who don't actually want to play a game but instead want a interactive screen saver or a rarely interesting incredibly slow paced economic sim. When considering purchasing this…”
23 of the 105 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“The new patch introduced wayyyyy too many new bugs that break the economy and the military (Ottomans are beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of Britain in 1840, for once). Ranches in Japan are owned by Sweden??? Or the fact that the…”
“Im surprised this game is even up for sale as it is Sadly riddled with bugs, performance issues and other problems that have been here from launch but at least they sell DLC, so that even more stuff can break while not…”
“Update 1.13 is buggy as hell. Armies and navies simply get stuck in random places on the map and are unusable. Completely game ruining.”
17 of the 105 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“The new patch introduced wayyyyy too many new bugs that break the economy and the military (Ottomans are beating the ♥♥♥♥ out of Britain in 1840, for once). Ranches in Japan are owned by Sweden??? Or the fact that the…”
“Im surprised this game is even up for sale as it is Sadly riddled with bugs, performance issues and other problems that have been here from launch but at least they sell DLC, so that even more stuff can break while not…”
“the fact you make DLCS and dont change core game features boggles the mind... $100 or so worth of dlcs..”
15 of the 105 reviews raise this · 1 of them still recommend the game.
“Im surprised this game is even up for sale as it is Sadly riddled with bugs, performance issues and other problems that have been here from launch but at least they sell DLC, so that even more stuff can break while not…”
“I often see people saying things along the lines of, "Paradox doesn't actually play their updates before releasing them". I thought it was an exaggeration until now. The issue is that now the AI can't colonize, and…”
“For the 1.13.1 patch, "Martin" wanted to take time to explain that the broken QA process was not QA's fault, rather it was his fault, and that we should blame him for that. Since when did knowing who to blame for sloppy…”
14 of the 105 reviews raise this · 8 of them still recommend the game.
“Very complicated, too many functions and goods. Started learning the game, selected Sweden and after 1 hour I did not finish the first Tutorial. Tutorials not organised by categories like - economy, diplomacy, etc. I…”
“I want to like this game, I really do. I even came to read the reviews to see if expansion packs make it more tolerable but it seems like a no. Elements of the quite opaque interconnected economic-political-legal system…”
“I just can't. It may be for you but not me. It is just to much. To tedious, to complicated, and to aggravating. It takes way to many steps and menus to do a single thing in the game. If you like that sort of thing than…”
Counted across 105 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 70.3% positive rating · as of 2026-05-12
“Very interesting simulation of 19th- and 20th-century economic and political development. Unlike many "grand strategy" games, it doesn't run out of content in the end game. Worth every cent of its price.”
— a player, Steam review · 1,314 hrs played“Oh man, i love this game, the development team and the community. TLDR : so much potential already here, and so much more on the way. The very best simulation there is, especially on a economy-side for a dumb nerd econ major like me. The possibilities are pletoric, the base game…”
— a player, Steam review · 2,313 hrs played“Never in my life have I seen an update to break a game to the state that's unplayable as the 1.13 did. Well done. New army movement via fleets is terrible. Tedious and not fun at all. Not to mention full of bugs. Armies spliting and merging uncontrolably if I actually manage to…”
— a player, Steam review · 672 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live data self-collected from the Steam API · history through 2026-06 via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-09-05.
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.
Victoria 3 – Dev Diary #188 - The ABC of Communism
Please note, as ever, that any screenshots attached are from a work-in-progress build, and certain elements may not be final. Additionally, there is a great amount to cover, and my permitted word coun
Open Beta Hotfix 1 is now LIVE! - Not for Problem Reports
Happy Wednesday Victorians! We originally did not intend to have a hotfix for the Open Beta, but our fix for hiring that went out in yesterday's update did not totally resolve the issue. As such, we d
1.14 Open Beta Update 1
The first update for the 1.14 Open Beta is here! This update brings various bug fixes and improvements for issues reported over the last week, including the building hiring issue and some focused arou
Victoria 3 – Dev Diary #187 - State and Revolution
What is to be played? State and Revolution , the upcoming Immersion Pack all about Russia, states, and revolutions! Releasing October 22nd , alongside free Update 1.15, you can pick it up as part of V
Victoria 3 – Dev Diary #186 - AI Update Open Beta Start Happy Wednesday everyon
Navigate to your Steam Library. Right-click Victoria 3 and select “Properties”. In the newly created window, select “Game Versions & Betas”. Now find the “1.14-openbeta” option and select it. If you w
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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 | Simulation, Strategy |
| Player tags | Grand Strategy · Economy · Historical · Political Sim · Strategy · Capitalism · Politics · Diplomacy · Management · Simulation · Alternate History · Moddable (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Cross-Platform Multiplayer · Steam Achievements · Steam Workshop · Color Alternatives |
| Languages | English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Turkish |
| Achievements | 141 |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS: Windows® 10 Home 64 Bit Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-3470 | AMD® FX™ 9370 (AVX support required) Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 660 (2GB) | AMD® Radeon™ R7 370 (2GB) or Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics or AMD® Radeon™ Vega 8 Storage: 10 GB available space