How Long Is Civilization 7? – Turns To Win And Playthrough Estimates

Unlike other games, it’s difficult to put an exact timeframe on just how long it takes to beat a playthrough of Civilization VII. For starters, the first couple of hours when you begin can be so daunting from a gameplay perspective, so you might spend more time reading the encyclopedia than actually playing. Another huge factor is the various difficulty settings you can apply to your playthrough, which can drastically alter the overall time it takes to get through all three ages in Civ 7.

Still, we know you have questions about the game’s length and we’re to give you the best answer we can. So just how long does it take to beat Civ 7?

How long it takes to beat Civilization 7

The best way to measure how long a playthrough of Civ 7 takes is by counting the number of turns you do across all three ages. While this isn’t a full representation of the overall game length, it does provide you with the best tool to measure your progress. And, speaking from experience, I can offer rough time estimates for the amount of turns it takes to beat a playthrough.

The number of turns it takes to get through all three ages in Civ 7 is entirely dependent on the “Game Speed” you play at. Playing on the fastest speed means it takes fewer turns to complete every age while the slowest speed takes the most turns possible. There are four main game speeds in Civ 7 and, from fastest to slowest, they are Quick, Standard, Epic, and Marathon. There’s also an “Online” option but that’s only for multiplayer.

If you decide to play on the Standard game speed, every age takes roughly 120-160 turns to complete. The Antiquity Age, which is where the game starts, usually takes the most numbers of turns, as you’ll receive more leeway to start up your settlement and get units produced. However, as you move on to the subsequent Exploration and Modern Ages, it takes fewer turns to reach the end of the age. My Antiquity Age on Standard speed took 160 turns while the Exploration Age took 150 and the Modern Age took 120. Of course, your results will vary depending on what kind of path you take.

Overall, a Standard speed playthrough of Civ 7 took me close to 35 hours to complete. This included a decent amount of encyclopedia reading and strategy when it came to individual turns, so I didn’t speed through the game by any means. However, I also didn’t spend minutes upon minutes agonizing over what to build or what leader to target.

On the flip side, you can expect a Quick speed playthrough to take significantly less time than a Standard speed run. My first Quick playthrough only lasted around 15 hours, with each age taking close to five hours and around 100 turns.

If you want to truly go the distance in Civ 7, playing on either Epic or Marathon speed takes dozens of hours and hundreds of turns per age. I didn’t get to finish a playthrough on either speed, but the Antiquity Age ended at 300 turns on Epic and over 400 turns on Marathon. In all likelihood, you could spend over 100 hours on a single Epic or Marathon run, especially if you crank the difficulty level up and play on a large map.

Speaking of which, the map size and difficulty level also play a factor in determining how many turns and hours your playthrough takes. If you play on the smallest map size and the easiest difficulty, you can breeze through a run in 10-20 hours. However, turning everything to the max amplifies how much time you spend in Civ 7 by a significant amount.