.The Civilization series has had plenty of time to grow. Debuting in 1991, it’s lasted 34 years and counting. In that time, seven mainline games have enjoyed their time in the limelight, as well as a multitude of spin-offs.
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But which Civilization game has the most civs? And what’s the deal with the ones that have more leaders than civs? We’re tackling those queries right here. Join us for a blitz through history – fitting stuff for Civilization – as we regale you with a bunch of numbers on our quest to determine the answer. Oh, and in case it needs to be said, we’re focusing on the mainline games only!
Civilization
The original Civilization, released in September 1991, sported 14 civs. It’s not much, but the game kickstarted the entire series, so in a way, it was all rather risky. There are only a handful of colors, so you’ll see multiple civs with the same color scheme in your games unless you’re only playing with a couple of opponents.
Civilization II
Civilization II launched in March 1996. Back in those days, five years between installments in a video games series was far from the norm, but the developers clearly wanted time to get things right.
The result was a substantial improvement over the original – the added seven civs for a total of 21 is hardly the only thing that improved between entries.
Civilization III
The lengthy interim periods between titles clearly became a mainstay, as Civilization III didn’t launch until the end of October 2001. But with Civ 3, the studio’s now-standard vision began to take shape: the game added two expansions over the next couple of years.
These expansions added further civilizations to the “vanilla” version’s count, bringing things up to 31 civs in full.
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Civilization IV
Civilization IV was a tremendous step up from its predecessor when it took the stage in October 2005. Both expansions revamped key mechanics across the board while adding more civs. Furthermore, some civs had more than one leader available.
Not only did Civ 4 take the civ count up a few more notches by the end of its lifecycle, from 31 to 34, but toss in the 52 leaders, and you have a ton of replay value.
Civilization V
With Civilization V in September 2010, the devs went back to basics, removing the multiple-leader aspect. That’s not to say Civ 5 was a stripped-down game in general. While there are some vets who still prefer Civ 4, there are enough Civ 5 diehards to this day that plenty of folks are still playing it any given time.
The number of civs jumped up to 43 by the time the two expansions had released. It’s worth noting, too, that Civ 5 is the origin of Civilization’s city-state mechanic, which kind of counts for the purposes of our article. Sort of.
Civilization VI
Few among us could have anticipated Civilization VI‘s incredibly robust post-launch support. The game made its debut in October 2016, bumping those four-to-five-year hiatuses between mainline releases to six.
Not only did it receive the customary two expansions, but Civ 6 eventually got the New Frontier Pass in 2020, and finally, the Leader Pass in 2022. The sheer magnitude of content Civ 6 enjoyed by the end of its tenure prompted one heck of an achievement: 50 civs and 67 leaders.
Civilization VII
The latest entry in the Civilization franchise left Civilization VI as the most recent title for over eight years – little wonder Firaxis opted to keep the ball rolling for so long.
February 2025 marked the beginning of this surprisingly experimental entry; Civilization VII uproots far more of the long-running formula than any prior chapter. With the introduction of the Ages mechanic, players will maintain the leader they’ve chosen at the start of the game, but shift civilizations twice by the end.
Needless to say, Civ 7 has far more civs than leaders, despite maintaining the multiple-leader concept from 4 and 6. Also, we only have a sliver of what Civilization VII will ultimately receive, as it’s launched quite recently as of this writing. It’s anyone’s guess where the final tally will land, but right now, we’re dealing with 31 civs and 26 leaders.
Winner: Civilization VI
With 50 civilizations to sift through and an incredible 67 leaders, Civilization VI takes home the grand prize… for now.
We’d be hard-pressed to believe you if you popped in from the future and told us Civilization VII will have more than 67 leaders by the end – given how that game operates – it does seem feasible for Civ 7 to break past 50 civs at some point. We’ll see!
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