The Game Census
Hearts of Iron IV cover art

Hearts of Iron IV

Paradox Development Studio · Paradox Interactive · 2016-06-06

SteamAmazon

SimulationStrategy

Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative · Perspectives: Bird view / Isometric

Releases: Jun 06, 2016 (Mac), Jun 06, 2016 (Linux), Jun 06, 2016 (PC (Microsoft Windows))

Victory is at your fingertips! Your ability to lead your nation is your supreme weapon, the strategy game Hearts of Iron IV lets you take command of any nation in World War II; the most engaging conflict in world history.

Hearts of Iron IV is a $49.99 game released in 2016, estimated to have 5,000,000 .. 10,000,000 owners, with Very Positive (90% of 374,169 reviews) in the Simulation and Strategy genres.

19,391
playing now
90%
positive of 361k reviews
Very Positive
steam's rating (official)
5,000,000–10,000,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
8
twitch viewers (latest)
1.6
viewers/channel (concentration)
84/100
critic score (6 outlets, IGDB)
81/100
IGDB user rating (214 ratings)
92
Nexus mods (106k downloads)
83/100
opencritic · strong · 81% recommend · from 22 critics
platinum
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Playable
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Playable
$49.99
steam price (US)

19,391 players in-game as of 2026-10-15 07:00 UTC (census sample)

Hearts of Iron IV, also commonly abbreviated as HOI4, is a 2016 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. It is the sequel to 2009's Hearts of Iron III and the fourth main installment in the Hearts of Iron series. Like previous games in the series, Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy wargame that focuses on World War II. The player can control any country in the world, starting either in 1936 or 1939. Players have the option to follow a nation's historical path, or leading various non-historical paths. The game allows players to play both single-player and multiplayer modes.

Trailer

Hearts of Iron IV trailer thumbnail

Hearts of Iron IV: Official Gameplay Trailer

≈1,000,000 YouTube results for this game's trailer search

Health check

Thriving
  • · 19,391 players in-game right now — a Steam top-100 title.
  • · 61,813 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~7,727/week).
  • · Review velocity up 154% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 1% of 16,758 Simulation games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-09-17

Tier history: healthy→thriving (Sep 17), thriving→healthy (Sep 16), healthy→thriving (Sep 16), thriving→healthy (Sep 16)

Estimated sales: 9.0M–22M copies

Review-multiple estimate from 361,063 total reviews — how this is computed.

Current store prices

GreenManGaming$8.80-82%
GameBillet$8.97-82%

Deal snapshots via CheapShark, refreshed daily.

All-time low: $3.99 at WinGameStore (2021-05-25)via IsThereAnyDeal

12-month high $58.79 · on sale 125 of 137 observed days (census price snapshots)

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
40k40k20182026Week of 2018-03-01: 978 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 184 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 467 positiveWeek of 2018-04-01: 85 negativeWeek of 2018-05-01: 536 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 115 negativeWeek of 2018-06-01: 629 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 99 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 578 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 86 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 515 positiveWeek of 2018-08-01: 68 negativeWeek of 2018-09-01: 496 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 88 negativeWeek of 2018-10-01: 442 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 45 negativeWeek of 2018-11-01: 3,357 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 106 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 803 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 63 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 607 positiveWeek of 2019-01-01: 71 negativeWeek of 2019-02-01: 792 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 101 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 843 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 119 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 431 positiveWeek of 2019-04-01: 65 negativeWeek of 2019-05-01: 464 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 63 negativeWeek of 2019-06-01: 2,703 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 173 negativeWeek of 2019-07-01: 3,087 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 116 negativeWeek of 2019-08-01: 432 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 66 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 384 positiveWeek of 2019-09-01: 50 negativeWeek of 2019-10-01: 1,369 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 73 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 7,649 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 273 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 4,076 positiveWeek of 2019-12-01: 217 negativeWeek of 2020-01-01: 2,941 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 162 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 2,685 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 180 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 2,736 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 192 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 2,240 positiveWeek of 2020-04-01: 189 negativeWeek of 2020-05-01: 2,421 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 191 negativeWeek of 2020-06-01: 2,414 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 159 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 2,607 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 187 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 1,821 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 127 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 1,913 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 140 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 2,436 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 207 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 4,231 positiveWeek of 2020-11-01: 254 negativeWeek of 2020-12-01: 3,212 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 244 negativeWeek of 2021-01-01: 2,972 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 205 negativeWeek of 2021-02-01: 2,433 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 187 negativeWeek of 2021-03-01: 2,866 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 204 negativeWeek of 2021-04-01: 2,226 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 181 negativeWeek of 2021-05-01: 2,879 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 234 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 2,783 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 210 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 2,917 positiveWeek of 2021-07-01: 223 negativeWeek of 2021-08-01: 2,463 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 202 negativeWeek of 2021-09-01: 2,474 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 187 negativeWeek of 2021-10-01: 2,399 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 204 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 4,957 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 338 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 3,488 positiveWeek of 2021-12-01: 325 negativeWeek of 2022-01-01: 3,651 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 324 negativeWeek of 2022-02-01: 2,698 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 318 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 3,381 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 312 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 2,545 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 193 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 2,810 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 241 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 2,875 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 247 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 3,146 positiveWeek of 2022-07-01: 239 negativeWeek of 2022-08-01: 2,605 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 213 negativeWeek of 2022-09-01: 2,739 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 272 negativeWeek of 2022-10-01: 2,774 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 312 negativeWeek of 2022-11-01: 3,410 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 233 negativeWeek of 2022-12-01: 3,097 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 290 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 3,214 positiveWeek of 2023-01-01: 283 negativeWeek of 2023-02-01: 2,350 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 262 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 2,859 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 256 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 2,292 positiveWeek of 2023-04-01: 222 negativeWeek of 2023-05-01: 2,854 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 255 negativeWeek of 2023-06-01: 2,653 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 237 negativeWeek of 2023-07-01: 3,655 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 379 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 2,692 positiveWeek of 2023-08-01: 270 negativeWeek of 2023-09-01: 2,915 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 274 negativeWeek of 2023-10-01: 3,976 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 398 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 5,065 positiveWeek of 2023-11-01: 306 negativeWeek of 2023-12-01: 3,496 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 312 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 3,560 positiveWeek of 2024-01-01: 621 negativeWeek of 2024-02-01: 2,660 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 382 negativeWeek of 2024-03-01: 3,564 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 620 negativeWeek of 2024-04-01: 3,845 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 578 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 3,426 positiveWeek of 2024-05-01: 402 negativeWeek of 2024-06-01: 2,948 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 379 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 3,180 positiveWeek of 2024-07-01: 409 negativeWeek of 2024-08-01: 2,782 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 380 negativeWeek of 2024-09-01: 2,456 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 272 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 2,713 positiveWeek of 2024-10-01: 279 negativeWeek of 2024-11-01: 5,473 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 441 negativeWeek of 2024-12-01: 4,060 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 403 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 3,328 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 346 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 2,435 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 2,517 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 3,420 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1,135 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 1,944 positiveWeek of 2025-04-01: 310 negativeWeek of 2025-05-01: 2,562 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 352 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 2,440 positiveWeek of 2025-06-01: 332 negativeWeek of 2025-07-01: 2,411 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 321 negativeWeek of 2025-08-01: 2,377 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 292 negativeWeek of 2025-09-01: 1,959 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 330 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 2,300 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 318 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 4,681 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 532 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 2,740 positiveWeek of 2025-12-01: 407 negativeWeek of 2026-01-01: 2,564 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 347 negativeWeek of 2026-02-01: 1,754 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 251 negativeWeek of 2026-03-01: 2,551 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 361 negativeWeek of 2026-04-01: 2,068 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 301 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 2,594 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 405 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 3,021 positiveWeek of 2026-06-01: 512 negativeWeek of 2026-07-01: 2,692 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 380 negativeWeek of 2026-08-01: 2,041 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 264 negativeWeek of 2026-09-01: 2,245 positiveWeek of 2026-09-01: 40,373 negativeWeek of 2026-10-01: 1,078 positiveWeek of 2026-10-01: 1,121 negative
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

60k19k2026-09-15 08:00 — 22,234 players2026-09-16 20:00 — 33,464 players2026-09-17 22:00 — 26,552 players2026-09-18 22:00 — 34,505 players2026-09-19 22:00 — 38,106 players2026-09-20 22:00 — 30,805 players2026-09-21 22:00 — 26,765 players2026-09-22 22:00 — 27,631 players2026-09-23 22:00 — 25,882 players2026-09-24 22:00 — 26,181 players2026-09-25 22:00 — 33,531 players2026-09-26 22:00 — 38,477 players2026-09-27 22:00 — 29,387 players2026-09-28 22:00 — 25,631 players2026-09-29 22:00 — 23,387 players2026-09-30 22:00 — 24,720 players2026-10-01 22:00 — 25,224 players2026-10-02 22:00 — 33,301 players2026-10-03 22:00 — 38,409 players2026-10-04 22:00 — 29,803 players2026-10-05 22:00 — 25,249 players2026-10-06 22:00 — 24,150 players2026-10-07 22:00 — 25,052 players2026-10-08 22:00 — 26,038 players2026-10-09 22:00 — 34,624 players2026-10-10 22:00 — 38,024 players2026-10-11 22:00 — 30,436 players2026-10-12 22:00 — 26,757 players2026-10-13 22:00 — 24,385 players2026-10-14 22:00 — 25,464 players2026-10-15 07:00 — 19,391 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
42k2Apr 2016Aug 2026Apr 2016 — avg 2 · peak 13Aug 2016 — avg 6,268 · peak 10,376Dec 2016 — avg 6,675 · peak 13,690Apr 2017 — avg 8,189 · peak 14,022Aug 2017 — avg 9,326 · peak 15,518Dec 2017 — avg 11,176 · peak 19,905Apr 2018 — avg 13,774 · peak 25,933Aug 2018 — avg 13,707 · peak 22,242Dec 2018 — avg 13,635 · peak 24,176Apr 2019 — avg 14,365 · peak 26,950Aug 2019 — avg 15,761 · peak 24,715Dec 2019 — avg 16,215 · peak 28,404Apr 2020 — avg 19,845 · peak 29,769Aug 2020 — avg 21,751 · peak 32,368Dec 2020 — avg 22,751 · peak 36,406Apr 2021 — avg 24,267 · peak 39,040Aug 2021 — avg 27,428 · peak 40,192Dec 2021 — avg 30,045 · peak 54,975Apr 2022 — avg 31,679 · peak 56,643Aug 2022 — avg 30,200 · peak 44,789Dec 2022 — avg 26,764 · peak 44,222Apr 2023 — avg 30,353 · peak 54,050Aug 2023 — avg 32,581 · peak 50,123Dec 2023 — avg 32,309 · peak 56,234Apr 2024 — avg 36,936 · peak 70,653Aug 2024 — avg 36,278 · peak 59,077Dec 2024 — avg 39,547 · peak 69,689Apr 2025 — avg 34,676 · peak 62,376Aug 2025 — avg 37,893 · peak 61,012Dec 2025 — avg 36,160 · peak 65,361Apr 2026 — avg 35,012 · peak 63,518Aug 2026 — avg 37,723 · peak 58,982
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Chart history

#38#492026-09-152026-10-152026-09-15 — #482026-09-16 — #482026-09-17 — #442026-09-18 — #422026-09-19 — #382026-09-20 — #382026-09-21 — #392026-09-22 — #382026-09-23 — #382026-09-24 — #382026-09-25 — #382026-09-26 — #392026-09-27 — #392026-09-28 — #402026-09-29 — #412026-09-30 — #422026-10-01 — #422026-10-02 — #422026-10-03 — #422026-10-04 — #422026-10-05 — #432026-10-06 — #462026-10-07 — #472026-10-08 — #462026-10-09 — #462026-10-10 — #472026-10-11 — #442026-10-12 — #442026-10-13 — #472026-10-14 — #492026-10-15 — #46
Best Steam most-played rank per day (census top-100 snapshots).

Price history

$49.99$4.792016-03-172026-10-082016-03-17 — best price $49.992016-12-31 — best price $21.992017-05-23 — best price $22.492017-10-24 — best price $31.992018-02-21 — best price $16.002018-07-03 — best price $15.992018-10-30 — best price $13.992019-02-22 — best price $11.992019-06-19 — best price $11.992019-10-23 — best price $39.992020-01-17 — best price $16.002020-03-26 — best price $39.992020-06-12 — best price $15.992020-09-29 — best price $29.992021-01-04 — best price $39.992021-04-13 — best price $18.992021-07-07 — best price $4.792021-11-01 — best price $6.392022-02-09 — best price $39.992022-06-17 — best price $9.992022-09-27 — best price $5.982023-01-16 — best price $35.992023-06-11 — best price $9.992023-10-13 — best price $10.792024-02-24 — best price $39.992024-05-14 — best price $11.992024-07-28 — best price $33.992024-10-13 — best price $49.992024-12-19 — best price $14.992025-03-07 — best price $11.162025-05-29 — best price $15.002025-11-28 — best price $41.992026-03-11 — best price $44.992026-05-17 — best price $44.992026-08-11 — best price $44.892026-10-08 — best price $8.80
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

1.1k4442026-05-13 — 670 pageviews2026-05-17 — 592 pageviews2026-05-21 — 630 pageviews2026-05-25 — 566 pageviews2026-05-29 — 556 pageviews2026-06-02 — 549 pageviews2026-06-06 — 933 pageviews2026-06-10 — 537 pageviews2026-06-14 — 833 pageviews2026-06-18 — 671 pageviews2026-06-22 — 646 pageviews2026-06-26 — 704 pageviews2026-06-30 — 517 pageviews2026-07-04 — 590 pageviews2026-07-08 — 617 pageviews2026-07-12 — 548 pageviews2026-07-16 — 508 pageviews2026-07-20 — 532 pageviews2026-07-24 — 497 pageviews2026-07-28 — 529 pageviews2026-08-01 — 444 pageviews2026-08-05 — 504 pageviews2026-08-09 — 503 pageviews2026-08-13 — 521 pageviews2026-08-17 — 574 pageviews2026-08-21 — 544 pageviews2026-08-25 — 621 pageviews2026-08-29 — 528 pageviews2026-09-02 — 497 pageviews2026-09-06 — 587 pageviews2026-09-10 — 645 pageviews2026-09-14 — 584 pageviews2026-09-18 — 646 pageviews2026-09-22 — 569 pageviews2026-09-26 — 722 pageviews2026-09-30 — 543 pageviews2026-10-04 — 630 pageviews2026-10-08 — 516 pageviews2026-10-12 — 561 pageviews2026-10-13 — 527 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Twitch viewers

1.7k22026-10-01 07:34 — 3 viewers2026-10-01 16:34 — 104 viewers2026-10-02 01:34 — 9 viewers2026-10-02 10:34 — 33 viewers2026-10-02 19:34 — 473 viewers2026-10-03 04:34 — 5 viewers2026-10-03 13:34 — 315 viewers2026-10-03 22:34 — 180 viewers2026-10-04 07:34 — 37 viewers2026-10-04 16:34 — 1,730 viewers2026-10-05 01:34 — 32 viewers2026-10-05 10:34 — 103 viewers2026-10-05 19:34 — 273 viewers2026-10-06 04:34 — 16 viewers2026-10-06 13:34 — 22 viewers2026-10-06 22:34 — 9 viewers2026-10-07 07:34 — 22 viewers2026-10-07 16:34 — 109 viewers2026-10-08 01:34 — 29 viewers2026-10-08 10:34 — 13 viewers2026-10-08 19:34 — 228 viewers2026-10-09 04:34 — 36 viewers2026-10-09 13:34 — 17 viewers2026-10-09 22:34 — 814 viewers2026-10-10 07:34 — 34 viewers2026-10-10 16:34 — 178 viewers2026-10-11 01:34 — 18 viewers2026-10-11 10:34 — 17 viewers2026-10-11 19:34 — 1,559 viewers2026-10-12 04:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-12 13:34 — 16 viewers2026-10-12 22:34 — 158 viewers2026-10-13 07:34 — 26 viewers2026-10-13 16:34 — 189 viewers2026-10-14 01:34 — 4 viewers2026-10-14 10:34 — 14 viewers2026-10-14 19:34 — 297 viewers2026-10-15 04:34 — 6 viewers2026-10-15 06:34 — 8 viewers
Hourly Twitch viewers (census snapshots).

Completion

60+
achievements tracked
19.8%
earned "Friend in Need"
3.8%
median achievement earned by

Global achievement rates from Steam.

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerMulti-playerCo-opCross-Platform MultiplayerSteam AchievementsSteam Trading CardsSteam WorkshopSteam CloudRemote Play on TabletFamily Sharing24 DLC

10 supported languages: English, French, German, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Korean

Post-launch support: 24 DLC released, first 2016-06-06, latest 2026-06-11 (Steam store data)

Console footprint

PlatformPlayers trackedCompletionTrophies/achievements
Steam (Steam)23,6100%293
Windows (Xbox)2580%191

Players tracked by Exophase (achievement/trophy trackers) — a sample of the player base, not total sales.

Where its players are

Share of Steam reviews by language (top languages measured) — a proxy for where the player base lives.

Player tags

RTSWarSandboxMilitaryStrategyTacticalDiplomacyHistoricalSimulationMultiplayer

Census log

Computed from census-recorded observations only — dates are observation dates.

Recent updates

Players also track

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Similarity via IGDB.

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