It’s a turbulent week for Civilization 7 fans. First, unfavorable reviews started popping up for PC and consoles, and a lack of reviews for the Nintendo Switch version left us even more concerned about its performance. However, it seems that our fears were somewhat unfounded, as it turns out that the game is actually selling really well on Nintendo’s beloved hybrid console.
According to Nintendo Everything’s weekly software sales chart, Civilization 7 debuts at number two ahead of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. This is across all platforms, but it seems that it’s holding steady on Switch, too.
Nintendo Life adds figures to this showing that Nintendo Switch makes up 27% of the strategy game’s sales, ahead of PC and Xbox by more than 10% each. As of writing, Civilization 7 is currently number 14 on the Steam Deck chart, and number four for Steam overall, even with its 20,461 ‘Mixed’ reviews on the platform.
The lower PC sales may be a result of the somewhat negative reviews Civilization 7 received as it launched, so it may turn out to be a better long-term seller if 2K Games manages to improve the player experience in future updates.
The main concerns players have with this latest installment are that the three ages become repetitive and the historical content seems condensed. There’s also the fact that the UI is generally disliked due to lack of information and unappealing design, the seemingly pointless removal of certain units (such as workers), balancing issues with different civilizations, and removal of set-up options that may speed up the game a little… I could go on. There are plenty of reviews and comments that lay out the issues players have with the game.
On top of the above issues affecting Civ 7 as a whole, there are also the classic performance issues of crashes, lagging, and bugs plaguing the Switch version. You may be wondering how on earth a game with so many issues has managed to rank so highly on the Nintendo Switch’s charts. I’ve not tried it for myself yet – and will likely grab the game up on PC in a sale – but maybe the draw of early access is what tempted so many players. Or, maybe it’s just that the ability to shrimp up in bed with a new game promising hundreds (or even thousands) of hours of gameplay from a franchise you know and love is too good to pass up.
Are you trying out this new Switch game? If you want to hop into a tried and tested simulation game that won’t disappoint, take a look at our Civilization 6 tier list to help you work out exactly who to play as.