Release History

Civilization 4 came out for Windows on Oct 25, 2005 in North America and Nov 4, 2005 in Europe, followed by a Mac version in 2006, Warlords on Jul 24, 2006, Beyond the Sword on Jul 23, 2007, Colonization on Sep 23, 2008 and the Complete Edition on May 12, 2009. Its last patch, Beyond the Sword 3.19, reached Steam on Jun 11, 2009, and online play moved to Steamworks on Jun 5, 2014.

Civilization 4 came out on Oct 25, 2005 in North America and on Nov 4, 2005 in Europe, for Windows, from Firaxis Games and 2K Games. The expansions followed in order: Warlords on Jul 24, 2006, Beyond the Sword on Jul 23, 2007 and the standalone Colonization on Sep 23, 2008. Aspyr brought each of them to the Mac, the Complete Edition gathered all four on May 12, 2009, and the last official patch, Beyond the Sword 3.19, reached Steam on Jun 11, 2009. The last change 2K made was moving online play from GameSpy to Steamworks on Jun 5, 2014.

Top-down 3D map of a green coastline crowded with city buildings and factories. City labels read Rome with The Pentagon, Antium with Factory, and others. A purple band marks a border in the sea, where small ships sail. — Gameplay from the Steam store page: a stretch of coast in 1938 AD with cities named Rome and Antium, industrial buildings, ships offshore and a purple cultural border along the sea. Firaxis Games and 2K

Quick facts

Announced	Jan 26, 2005, for "late 2005"
Released (Windows)	Oct 25, 2005 in North America, Nov 4, 2005 in Europe
Mac (Aspyr)	Planned for Jun 26, 2006
Warlords	Jul 24, 2006
Beyond the Sword	Jul 23, 2007 in North America (Steam lists Jul 24)
Colonization	Sep 23, 2008
Complete Edition	May 12, 2009
Last patch	Beyond the Sword 3.19, Jun 11, 2009
Steamworks online play	Jun 5, 2014

Every release in order

Jan 26, 2005	Announcement	Take-Two buys rights to the series and announces Civ 4 for "late 2005"
Oct 25, 2005	Civilization 4 (Windows)	Ships in North America; Europe follows Nov 4
Jan to Apr 2006	Patches 1.52 and 1.61, SDK, Pitboss	Rebalanced rules, new maps and scenarios, the game core's source code, persistent online games
Jun 26, 2006 (planned)	Civilization 4 for Mac	Aspyr's Universal Binary, cross-platform multiplayer
Jul 24, 2006	Warlords	Six civilizations, Great Generals, vassal states, scenarios
Jan 23, 2007	Mac patch 1.61 Rev B	Mac and PC play together through GameSpy
Jul 17, 2007	Gold Edition (Windows)	Civ 4 and Warlords with a DVD and posters
Jul 23, 2007	Beyond the Sword	10 civilizations, corporations, espionage, events, 11 scenarios
Mar 12, 2008	Mac Warlords 2.13	Mac Warlords reaches parity with the PC version
Sep 23, 2008	Colonization	Standalone remake of the 1994 Colonization
Mar 31, 2009	Gold Edition (Mac)	Civ 4 and Warlords for Mac
May 12, 2009	Complete Edition	All four in one DRM-free box
Jun 11, 2009	Beyond the Sword 3.19	The final patch
Jul 27, 2009	Beyond the Sword for Mac	Aspyr's port
Dec 28, 2009	Colonization for Mac	Aspyr's port
May 12, 2010	Steam for Mac	Civ 4 and its expansions in the launch lineup
Jun 5, 2014	Steamworks update	Online play moves from GameSpy to Steam; Direct IP removed
Jun 17, 2019	Aspyr ends 32-bit Mac sales	Civ 4 and Colonization leave Aspyr's Mac store

Sources for the table: the sections below, each date linked to its source.

The announcement: Jan 26, 2005

Civ 4 was announced on Jan 26, 2005, when Take-Two said it had bought "certain rights" to the Civilization series and signed Firaxis Games to a long-term, multi-title publishing deal. The release promised Civ 4 for PC in "late 2005" under the 2K Games label, and promised that players could build add-ons "using the standard Python and XML scripting languages". Soren Johnson later said the game had been "dropped by its publisher and sold to Take-Two" halfway through development (PC Gamer's paraphrase, Apr 6, 2020). Take-Two bought Firaxis itself on Nov 7, 2005. The story of the build is on Development History.

Civilization 4: Oct 25, 2005

The Windows game "has shipped to retail stores in North America", 2K and Firaxis announced on Oct 25, 2005, and would reach European stores on Nov 4. GameSpot's review noted that "the ship date was moved up almost a full month" (in August GameSpot had reported a November ship). At launch the game had seven religions, civics, Great People, promotions, a full 3D engine and a map editor "with XML and Python support", with LAN, Internet, Play by E-mail and Hot Seat multiplayer. The Pitboss server and the source-code SDK were not in the box yet.

Patches 1.52 and 1.61, the SDK and Pitboss: 2006

The first months of 2006 brought the patches and tools that finished the game. On Jan 4, 2006 2K's downloads page offered patch 1.52; by Apr 13, 2006 it offered patch 1.61, which it called "a major upgrade" with new scenarios and map scripts, plus the Software Development Kit ("the core game DLL source code") and the Pitboss server. The exact day the SDK and Pitboss appeared is not published; the two archived pages place it between those dates. Fall from Heaven's author, Derek Paxton, recalls the source code going public in April 2006. Patch details are on Patches and Updates, and Pitboss on Multiplayer.

The Mac version: 2006

Aspyr ported Civ 4 to the Mac as a Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel Macs, expected "to start shipping to retailers on Monday, June 26, 2006" at $49.99, with LAN, Internet and Play by E-mail games against Windows players. The actual first day in stores was not reported. Mac patch 1.61 Rev B on Jan 23, 2007 added "cross-compatibility with the PC version of the game through Gamespy".

Warlords: Jul 24, 2006

Warlords was announced on Mar 16, 2006 and released in North America on Jul 24, 2006. It added six civilizations, 10 leaders, three leader traits, a unique building for every civilization, Great Generals, vassal states, three wonders and a set of scenarios. Its release days outside North America were not reported by an official or press source. Aspyr's Mac version was planned for November 2006 and was out by Jan 23, 2007, when its own Rev B update shipped; Mac Warlords 2.13 caught up with the PC version on Mar 12, 2008.

The Gold Edition: Jul 17, 2007

The Windows Gold Edition bundled Civ 4 and Warlords with a behind-the-scenes DVD and two posters, one of them the tech tree, and shipped on Jul 17, 2007, days before Beyond the Sword. Aspyr released a Mac Gold Edition for $50 on Mar 31, 2009.

Beyond the Sword: Jul 23, 2007

Beyond the Sword was announced in March 2007 at $29.99 and released on Jul 23, 2007 in North America; Steam lists Jul 24. It added 10 civilizations, 16 leaders, five wonders, corporations, espionage, random events, the Apostolic Palace, colonies, Advanced Start and 11 scenarios and mods. Aspyr's Mac version followed two years later, at $35, announced on Jul 27, 2009.

Colonization: Sep 23, 2008

Colonization was announced on Jun 9, 2008 as a standalone remake of the 1994 Colonization that "does not require the original game", and released on Sep 23, 2008 (Metacritic lists Sep 22) at $29.99. Aspyr's Mac version followed for $40 on Dec 28, 2009.

The Complete Edition: May 12, 2009

The Complete Edition put Civ 4, Warlords, Beyond the Sword and Colonization in one Windows box on May 12, 2009 for $39.99, "entirely DRM-free". It was still No. 19 on NPD's US PC chart in September 2009. Today it is the edition Steam and GOG sell: see Complete Edition and Where to Buy.

Beyond the Sword 3.19: Jun 11, 2009

The last official patch is Beyond the Sword 3.19, which Valve posted as a Steam product update on Jun 11, 2009. Its notes list several dozen fixes: AI improvements, a No Espionage option that also removes the free Great Spy from Communism and espionage events, Conquistadors that ignore walls like Cuirassiers, collateral damage modifiers that multiply instead of add, and "Moved some gamecore-specific code into the DLL", which helped modders. Most mods still name 3.19 as the version they need. No final base-game patch number is confirmed by an official or press source, and Warlords' last confirmed PC version is 2.13, in use by Mar 12, 2008.

Steam and the Mac: 2010 to 2019

Civ 4 and its expansions were part of Steam for Mac's launch lineup on May 12, 2010. Aspyr briefly pulled Mac support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite over "a python library issue" and posted a fix on Nov 20, 2014. On Jun 17, 2019, ahead of macOS Catalina's move to 64-bit apps only, Aspyr stopped selling its 32-bit Mac games, Civ 4 among them; owners could keep playing on Mojave and earlier. Steam still lists Mac support, but its page says the Mac version's online multiplayer is no longer supported.

Steamworks replaces GameSpy: Jun 5, 2014

When GameSpy closed in 2014, 2K moved Civ 4, Warlords, Beyond the Sword and Colonization to Steamworks; their online play went offline after May 31 during the move. The Steamworks update, posted on Jun 5, 2014, "replaces GameSpy with Steamworks for multiplayer functionality" and works identically "with the exception that the 'Direct IP' option has been removed". 2K then offered the original build on Steam as an unsupported beta branch for Direct IP games (2K Support). See Multiplayer.

Frequently asked questions

When did Civilization 4 come out? Civilization 4 came out for Windows on Oct 25, 2005 in North America and on Nov 4, 2005 in Europe.

In what order were the Civ 4 expansions released? Civilization 4's expansions came out in this order: Warlords on Jul 24, 2006, Beyond the Sword on Jul 23, 2007 and the standalone Colonization on Sep 23, 2008.

When did Civ 4 come out on Mac? Aspyr's Mac version of Civilization 4 was set to ship on Jun 26, 2006; Mac Warlords was planned for November 2006, Beyond the Sword for Mac came in July 2009 and Colonization for Mac in December 2009.

What was the last Civ 4 patch? Civilization 4's last official patch is Beyond the Sword 3.19, released on Steam on Jun 11, 2009.

When was the Civ 4 Complete Edition released? The Civilization 4 Complete Edition, with all three add-ons, came out on May 12, 2009 for $39.99.

How old is Civilization 4? Civilization 4 turns 21 on Oct 25, 2026, counting from its North American release on Oct 25, 2005; its newest content, Colonization, dates from 2008.