Deal | Steam: “The most epic sci-fi strategy game of all time” drops below $10

In Stellaris, players create their own species, whose ethics, government type, origin and traits strongly shape its development. From small beginnings, an interstellar empire gradually emerges, facing neighboring powers, ancient civilizations, political conflicts and galaxy-wide crises. One of the game’s greatest strengths is its sandbox nature: each run can produce different event chains, alliances, rivalries and galactic catastrophes.

Gameplay-wise, Stellaris offers Paradox’s signature grand strategy in pausable real time. Players explore star systems, colonize planets, build fleets, conduct diplomatic negotiations and react to internal and external crises. Thanks to numerous expansions and updates, the game’s scope has grown considerably since its release in May 2016 – which is both a strength and a barrier to entry.

GameStar awarded Stellaris a solid 86 out of 100 points and described it as a “story generator.” The game thrives above all on player decisions, creating individual science fiction stories. The testers particularly praised the gripping sci-fi atmosphere, the vast scope and the high level of customization. Criticism was directed at the rather restrained presentation and performance issues in the later stages of the game. The German gaming website WebGamers even called Stellaris “the most epic science fiction strategy game of all time.”

On Steam, the title has more than 197,500 user reviews, 85% of which are positive. Metacritic paints a similar picture: the Metascore is 78, while the User Score stands at 8.0. Stellaris is classified as “Playable” on the Steam Deck, though the controls are likely to be quite fiddly – the game is clearly designed for mouse and keyboard.

75% discount on Steam

Stellaris was developed by Paradox Interactive and released in May 2016. The grand strategy game normally costs around $40 on Steam, but a 75% discount reduces the price to $9.99 until May 10. According to SteamDB, the title was once reduced by 90% during the Winter Sale 2024/2025. Otherwise, the current deal matches its usual discount level. The Ultimate Bundle combines the base game with numerous expansions, story packs and species packs, and costs $152.86 instead of $287.38 with a 44% discount. Alternatively, there is a subscription model for $9.99 per month.

By the way: Paradox has announced that the DLCs Utopia, Synthetic Dawn and the Humanoids Species Pack will be integrated into the base game for Stellaris’ 10th anniversary on May 11. Until then, all three DLCs are available for free. Afterwards, the regular price will increase by around $10.

Disclaimer: Notebookcheck is not responsible for price changes carried out by retailers. The discounted price or deal mentioned in this item was available at the time of writing and may be subject to time restrictions and/or limited unit availability.