Take-Two CEO reckons Civilization 7’s mixed reception is just history repeating itself: ‘Every time we’ve come out with a new platform iteration of Civilization, there’s been some consternation on the part of consumers’

Civilization 7 has proved one of the more divisive games of 2025 thus far. At present, its Steam rating is split almost precisely down the middle, between players who enjoy its attempt to streamline the experience, and those who believe the changes result in a shallow and predictable turn-based strategy.

It’s the most divided response to a new Civilization game that I can personally recall. But according to Strauss Zelnick, boss of Civ 7’s publisher Take-Two Interactive, the reaction is nothing new when compared to the great span of the series’ history.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz in a wide-ranging chat, Zelnick was asked how he saw the post-launch journey of Civilization 7 playing out. While he admitted the game “had some challenges at launch”, Zelnick pointed out this is hardly the first time a new Civilization game has met with a divergent response from its player base.

“Every time we’ve come out with a new platform iteration of Civilization, there’s been some consternation on the part of consumers who love the franchise and are beholden to its prior iteration,” Zelnick explained. “Then, we will occasionally do updates, make changes, address concerns, and the sales cycle ends up being very long, and people—once again—fall in love with it.”

This isn’t to say Zelnick believes the game is perfect. He concedes that “we probably have a bit more work to do.” But he’s seemingly happy with the game’s commercial performance, stating that “sales are strong”. Moreover, he believes that the critical response will eventually catch up with the commercial one: “We’re really happy with how it’s going—and I think in the fullness of time, it’ll be just great.”

There’s certainly some truth to Zelnick’s comments. Civilization has detractors whenever Firaxis makes changes to the formula. That said, I think Zelnick’s response downplays the number of detractors this particular iteration has. More than three months on from launch, just 48% of Steam reviewers view the game positively. That’s only 4% better than when the game launched, which isn’t exactly a dramatic improvement.

As for the game’s commercial performance, Zelnick’s comment about strong sales does seem accurate. According to data from video games analyst Mat Piscatella (via Gamespot) Civilization 7 is the 8^th best-selling game of 2025 in the US. Yet at the same time, Civilization 7 seems substantially less popular than previous entries in the series. According to Steam charts, Civilization 7 had 9,537 players in-game at the time of writing, compared to 43,307 players in Civilization 6 and 15,981 players in Civilization 5. This doesn’t seem to line-up so well with Zelnick’s comment about Civ 7’s longevity.

Among all this, it’s worth noting that we fell on the more positive side of the Civilization 7 debate. Robert Zak reviewed the game back on launch, and thought its changes to be largely, if not entirely, successful. “It’s the most streamlined and pared-back the series has been in a long time, which certainly helps with accessibility and pacing—particularly in multiplayer—but may leave some yearning for the depth and mechanical diversity of its predecessors.”