The Game Census
Master of Orion 2 cover art

Master of Orion 2

SimTex · Wargaming Labs · 2016-02-25

SteamGOG

Strategy

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

Releases: Dec 16, 1996 (PC (Microsoft Windows)), Sep 24, 1997 (Mac), Dec 16, 1996 (DOS)

Forge an empire in a universe where population growth is stripping away planetary resources. Colonize unknown planets and trade with other races for their knowledge.

Master of Orion 2 is a $5.99 Strategy game released in 2016, with an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 owners and Overwhelmingly Positive reviews (96% of 1756 reviews).

129
playing now
96%
positive of 1.8k reviews
Overwhelmingly Positive
steam's rating (official)
100,000–200,000
owners (SteamSpy est.)
92/100
IGDB user rating (70 ratings)
gold
deck/linux tier (ProtonDB)
Unsupported
Steam Deck (Valve)
SteamOS: Unsupported
$5.99
steam price (US)

129 players in-game as of 2026-10-14 15:00 UTC (census sample)

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares is a 4X turn-based strategy game set in space, designed by Steve Barcia and Ken Burd, and developed by Simtex, who developed its predecessor Master of Orion and Master of Magic. The PC version was published by MicroProse in 1996, and the Macintosh version a year later by MacSoft, in partnership with MicroProse. The game has retained a large fan base, and is still played online.

Health check

Quietly active
  • · 129 players in-game at the last census sample.
  • · 88 reviews in the last 8 weeks (~11/week).
  • · Review velocity down 21% vs the prior 8 weeks.
  • · Top 11% of 14,104 Strategy games in the census by review count.

Health tier since 2026-08-30

Estimated sales: 44k–106k copies

Review-multiple estimate from 1,760 total reviews — how this is computed.

Review momentum

PositiveNegative
323220182026Week of 2018-01-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-02-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-04-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-05-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-07-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2018-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-08-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2018-09-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2018-10-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2018-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2018-12-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2018-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-01-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 2 positiveWeek of 2019-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-03-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2019-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-04-01: 3 positiveWeek of 2019-05-01: 6 positiveWeek of 2019-06-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2019-07-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2019-08-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2019-09-01: 1 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2019-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-11-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2019-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2019-12-01: 20 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 25 positiveWeek of 2020-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-02-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2020-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-03-01: 28 positiveWeek of 2020-03-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2020-04-01: 32 positiveWeek of 2020-05-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2020-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-07-01: 26 positiveWeek of 2020-07-01: 5 negativeWeek of 2020-08-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2020-08-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-09-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2020-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-10-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2020-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2020-11-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2020-12-01: 23 positiveWeek of 2021-01-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2021-02-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2021-03-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2021-04-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2021-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-06-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2021-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-07-01: 21 positiveWeek of 2021-08-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2021-09-01: 19 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2021-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-11-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2021-11-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2021-12-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2022-01-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 22 positiveWeek of 2022-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-03-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2022-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-04-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2022-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-05-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2022-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-06-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2022-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2022-07-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2022-08-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2022-09-01: 5 positiveWeek of 2022-10-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2022-11-01: 8 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2022-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-01-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2023-02-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2023-03-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2023-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-04-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2023-05-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2023-06-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 4 positiveWeek of 2023-07-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-08-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2023-09-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2023-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2023-11-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2023-12-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-01-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2024-02-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2024-03-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-05-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-06-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-07-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-08-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2024-10-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2024-11-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2024-12-01: 4 negativeWeek of 2025-01-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2025-01-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-02-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-02-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-03-01: 17 positiveWeek of 2025-03-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-04-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 16 positiveWeek of 2025-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-06-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2025-07-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2025-08-01: 15 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2025-09-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-10-01: 13 positiveWeek of 2025-10-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2025-11-01: 18 positiveWeek of 2025-11-01: 2 negativeWeek of 2025-12-01: 12 positiveWeek of 2026-01-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2026-02-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2026-03-01: 10 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 7 positiveWeek of 2026-04-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-05-01: 9 positiveWeek of 2026-05-01: 1 negativeWeek of 2026-06-01: 14 positiveWeek of 2026-07-01: 11 positiveWeek of 2026-08-01: 13 positive
Weekly review counts (Steam review histogram). Positive above the line, negative below.

Players online

226912026-09-15 00:00 — 158 players2026-09-16 08:00 — 100 players2026-09-17 16:00 — 160 players2026-09-18 23:00 — 176 players2026-09-20 07:00 — 110 players2026-09-21 14:00 — 137 players2026-09-22 22:00 — 170 players2026-09-24 05:00 — 122 players2026-09-25 13:00 — 140 players2026-09-26 20:00 — 213 players2026-09-28 04:00 — 136 players2026-09-29 11:00 — 118 players2026-09-30 19:00 — 192 players2026-10-02 02:00 — 143 players2026-10-03 10:00 — 152 players2026-10-04 18:00 — 226 players2026-10-06 02:00 — 139 players2026-10-07 09:00 — 98 players2026-10-08 17:00 — 166 players2026-10-10 00:00 — 163 players2026-10-11 08:00 — 139 players2026-10-12 15:00 — 179 players2026-10-13 23:00 — 155 players2026-10-14 15:00 — 129 players
Concurrent players, hourly average, last 30 days (census samples).
16828Mar 2016Aug 2026Mar 2016 — avg 78 · peak 186Jul 2016 — avg 33 · peak 64Nov 2016 — avg 87 · peak 192Mar 2017 — avg 80 · peak 152Jul 2017 — avg 81 · peak 149Nov 2017 — avg 79 · peak 145Mar 2018 — avg 92 · peak 182Jul 2018 — avg 91 · peak 168Nov 2018 — avg 97 · peak 183Mar 2019 — avg 98 · peak 181Jul 2019 — avg 100 · peak 194Nov 2019 — avg 106 · peak 177Mar 2020 — avg 134 · peak 265Jul 2020 — avg 122 · peak 219Nov 2020 — avg 127 · peak 211Mar 2021 — avg 129 · peak 232Jul 2021 — avg 125 · peak 209Nov 2021 — avg 131 · peak 220Mar 2022 — avg 137 · peak 237Jul 2022 — avg 137 · peak 222Nov 2022 — avg 138 · peak 228Mar 2023 — avg 141 · peak 236Jul 2023 — avg 137 · peak 225Nov 2023 — avg 145 · peak 235Mar 2024 — avg 151 · peak 244Jul 2024 — avg 140 · peak 228Nov 2024 — avg 155 · peak 245Mar 2025 — avg 162 · peak 268Jul 2025 — avg 154 · peak 247Nov 2025 — avg 166 · peak 254Mar 2026 — avg 159 · peak 268Jul 2026 — avg 152 · peak 239Aug 2026 — avg 156 · peak 255
Monthly average players (source: steamcharts.com) — history via steamcharts.com; live census sampling since Aug 2026.

Price history

$49.99$1.792016-08-262021-02-152016-08-26 — best price $42.492016-10-30 — best price $29.992016-11-23 — best price $29.992016-12-22 — best price $24.992017-02-20 — best price $24.992017-06-20 — best price $24.992018-05-29 — best price $5.992018-07-05 — best price $5.992018-11-01 — best price $5.992018-11-28 — best price $5.992019-01-03 — best price $5.992019-02-12 — best price $5.992019-07-09 — best price $5.992019-07-22 — best price $5.992019-11-01 — best price $5.992019-12-03 — best price $5.992020-01-02 — best price $5.992020-01-27 — best price $5.992020-07-09 — best price $5.992020-09-14 — best price $5.992020-11-02 — best price $5.992020-12-01 — best price $5.992021-01-05 — best price $5.992021-02-15 — best price $5.99
Lowest recorded price across tracked stores, per day (census snapshots).

Attention

63232026-06-01 — 49 pageviews2026-06-05 — 36 pageviews2026-06-09 — 37 pageviews2026-06-13 — 43 pageviews2026-06-17 — 32 pageviews2026-06-21 — 41 pageviews2026-06-25 — 28 pageviews2026-06-29 — 42 pageviews2026-07-03 — 60 pageviews2026-07-07 — 47 pageviews2026-07-11 — 38 pageviews2026-07-15 — 42 pageviews2026-07-19 — 27 pageviews2026-07-23 — 41 pageviews2026-07-27 — 30 pageviews2026-07-31 — 28 pageviews2026-08-04 — 35 pageviews2026-08-08 — 34 pageviews2026-08-12 — 37 pageviews2026-08-16 — 35 pageviews2026-08-20 — 42 pageviews2026-08-24 — 48 pageviews2026-08-28 — 38 pageviews2026-09-01 — 47 pageviews2026-09-05 — 39 pageviews2026-09-09 — 32 pageviews2026-09-13 — 36 pageviews2026-09-17 — 34 pageviews2026-09-21 — 52 pageviews2026-09-25 — 33 pageviews2026-09-29 — 50 pageviews2026-10-03 — 26 pageviews2026-10-07 — 30 pageviews2026-10-10 — 42 pageviews
Daily Wikipedia pageviews (attention proxy, census-recorded).

Details

WindowsmacOSLinuxSingle-playerMulti-playerFamily Sharing

2 supported languages: English, French

Player tags

4XRetroSpaceSci-fiClassicStrategyTurn-BasedMultiplayerSingleplayerGrand Strategy

Census log

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

Players also track

Distant Worlds: UniverseStellarisSid Meier's StarshipsENDLESS Space™ 2PlanetbasePolaris SectorTears of AviaAge of Wonders: Planetfall

Similarity via IGDB.

Official site ↗Wikipedia ↗