In the competitive world of video games, some titles rise above the rest to become annual bestsellers. Over the past two decades, one strategy game has claimed the top spot each year, with a new entry consistently dominating the sales charts. Each year brings a different title, but all share a common thread: they offer engaging gameplay, deep strategic mechanics, and a dedicated fanbase that ensures their success. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the best-selling strategy game of each year for the past 20 years, exploring what made each game a standout and how they’ve shaped the genre over time.
I’ve researched this article deeply and tried to come up with a definitive list. Still, there’s a lot of stuff that cannot be completely confirmed, and gaming companies are notorious for not releasing sales figures unless things go really well or really bad.
I’ve tried cross-referencing several sources, like gaming websites, sales reports, and even the Steam top sellers list from 2019 onwards. I also crossed all this information with SteamDB, Gamalytic and SteamSpy whenever I could to try and get a more accurate result. If you have different information than I do, please send it to me and I’ll take a look and update the list accordingly.
Friendly advice: Maybe you can use this list to decide if you want to pick up some games during the Steam Winter Sale!
2004 – RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 – 10 Million Copies
I bet you were expecting to see Rome: Total War in here, or maybe Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War and so was I! But damn, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 sold 10 million copies, and to put into perspective how wild that is, it would mean that every person in Portugal would have a copy of it. This puts it on par with some of the highest-grossing titles in this list and places RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 as one of the top-grossing strategy games of all time.
2005 – Civilization IV – 3 Million Copies
One thing this list made me realize is just how popular the Civilization series is for mainstream gamers, often going toe to toe with other massive gaming franchises. In 2005, Gran Turismo sold over 5 million copies on the PlayStation 2, Madden and Nintendo Dogs over 4 million and Pokemon Emerald 3 million. The classic 4X is making two more appearances in this list, and I’m certain that if it were to go to 2025, it would be making a fourth. Personally, I still love Civilization IV, and if you have a couple of bucks hanging around, you should pick it up, as it plays quite differently compared to Civilization V and Civilization VI.
2006 – Star Wars: Empire at War – 6.7 Million Copies
Another surprising entry, as I was expecting to see the original Company of Heroes with its 4 million copies sold. However, it seemed that Petroglyph’s classic real-time strategy set in a galaxy far far away, Star Wars: Empire at War beat the World War 2 contender by a couple million sales. Even on Steam, according to Gamalytic, the game has sold more copies than Company of Heroes. What surprises me the most is how, despite all of this success, we haven’t had another decent Star Wars RTS for almost 20 years.
2007 – Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars – 1 Million Copies
This year was a toss-up between Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and Supreme Commander, with each one selling around 1 million copies each. Considering its lifecycle and what I can gather from Gamalytics, despite the cult following of Supreme Commander, it seems that Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars sold more copies on Steam as well. Considering we don’t have access to Origin’s numbers, I think it’s a fair assessment to say it sold a bit more, but I doubt the difference is very significant. But when compared to the third best-selling game of 2007, Sins of a Solar Empire, this one sold nearly 500,000 copies by the end of 2007. I couldn’t find any information on World In Conflict, but I am rather curious to know how well it did, judging by the fact that it never had a sequel, it probably didn’t meet sales expectations.
2008 – Spore – 3.5 Million Copies
I was considering if Spore should be on this list or not, as it’s a strategy game, but a very weird one. Then I took a look at the strategy games released in 2008 and was reminded that 2008 was a terrible year for strategy games, with only Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar as worthy mentions. Besides, Spore is such an interesting game. Remember how revolutionary it was supposed to be? To simulate the entire existence of a species designed by the players, from a microorganism to a space-age civilization? The first part of the game was something akin to a top-down twin-stick shooter with microbes, the second part was a third-person action adventure, and the last one was a mix between a real-time strategy and a God game. Spore was impressive at the time, but failed to deliver in a lot of its promised aspects of being a massive simulation of evolution. Instead, it lives on as a product of its time, an interesting concept pushed to its limits by a massive marketing ploy.
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