Europa Universalis V ▶ Trailer
Europa Universalis V screenshot 1Europa Universalis V screenshot 2
StrategyGrand StrategyHistorical4XDiplomacyMedieval

4,695 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 11,947

Peak in the last 7 days: 14,113

Europa Universalis V Steam store

Game description

Use war, trade or diplomacy to satisfy your grandest ambitions and dominate five centuries of history in the newest version of Europa Universalis, Paradox Interactive's flagship historical grand strategy game.

Basic info

DeveloperParadox Tinto
PublisherParadox Interactive
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckPlayable
Release dateNov 4, 2025
Price
  • Steam store −20% $59.99 $47.99 · Steam ↗
  • Lowest-price store $47.99 · Steam
  • Historical low $42.55 · 3-month low $47.95Other stores ↗

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows® 10 Home 64 Bit
ProcessorIntel® Core™ i7-8700K | AMD® Ryzen™ 5 3600
Memory16 GB
GraphicsNvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1060 (6GB) | AMD® Radeon™ RX 580 (8GB) | Intel® Arc™ A380 (6GB) | In…
Storage20 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 411 reviews from the past 1 year

63.1/ 100
Bottom 20%

Steam rating: Mixed (65%)

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 13, 2026)

Deep, interconnected systems impress 69 reviewers of Europa Universalis V, but an unfinished launch holds it at 63.1 from 31,085 Steam reviews.

👍 Strengths

69 reviews praise interconnected systems with deep tactical and strategic choices, and 62 call it a lot of fun, the most upvoted expecting thousands of hours ahead. Players appreciate historical detail in its cultures, and some say it lets you learn as you go. A few call its graphics the best in the genre.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support ranks 1280th of 1399 and comes up in 55% of analyzed reviews. 57 reviews find the AI poorly balanced, the most upvoted saying it cannot expand or declare war properly, and 48 find the game broken and unfinished, the most upvoted saying it was sold as a release while feeling like a beta. 44 find the interface confusing, with important information buried in menus. Others say frequent patches rewrite core mechanics, and Pricing & Fairness ranks 1300th of 1399. Gameplay ranks 1010th of 1396, and some report heavy GPU demands.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“interconnected systems with deep tactical and strategic choices” · 69 reviews
“strong 8/10, a lot of fun, thousands of hours ahead” · 62 reviews
“AI is unchallenged and cannot expand or declare war properly” · 57 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 75% of reviews · Bottom 30% of the games we've analyzed

Strategy +1.39 · Depth of builds, tactics, and meaningful choices
Positive “interconnected systems with deep tactical and strategic choices” · 69 reviews
Negative “hundreds of tedious levers to pull with poor automation and limited strategic depth” · 23 reviews

Progression 19% · Difficulty 8% · Onboarding 39% · Freedom 21% · Controls & feel 26%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 18% of reviews · Bottom 20% of the games we've analyzed

World +1.69 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “historically accurate separation of Muscovite and Ruthenian cultures” · 15 reviews
Negative “game feels like meaningless colored map lacking historical immersion and flavor” · 2 reviews

Story 6% · Characters 1%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 38% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

Variety -2.65 · Fresh content and situations versus repetition
Negative “mechanics feel repetitive with shallow unconnected systems and tedious clicking” · 10 reviews

Volume 25% · Replayability 5%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 15% of reviews · Bottom 10% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +1.24 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “graphics are 10/10, best in the genre” · 14 reviews
Negative “graphics lack elegance of EU IV, UI scattered across submenus” · 3 reviews

Audio 5%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 3% of reviews mention this.

Community -1.64 · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly

Playing together 2% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 40% of reviews · Bottom 10% of the games we've analyzed

Balance -0.93 · Whether classes, weapons, and builds are evenly matched
Negative “AI is unchallenged and cannot expand or declare war properly” · 57 reviews

Anti-cheat 0% · Pricing 14% · Matchmaking 2%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 55% of reviews · Bottom 10% of the games we've analyzed

Developer support -0.57 · Updates, patches, and how devs respond to players
Negative “patches radically rewrite core mechanics every other week, zero point learning” · 30 reviews

Stability 30% · Performance 25%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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