If you’ve been looking to get into 2016’s Sid Meier’s Civilization VI but still haven’t made the plunge, you’re fresh out of excuses: From Thursday, May 21 to May 28 at 11 a.m., the game is completely, 100% free on the Epic Games Store.
The Epic Games Store has offered a handful of free games every other week since 2019, but for its “Epic MEGA Sale” running from May 14 to June 11, the game launcher is giving out one game a week, the first two of which have been seriously heavy hitters. Last week saw the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto V release for free on the platform, which so many people went to download at once that the store crashed for over eight hours.
Civilization VI was a critical and financial success upon its launch on PC in 2016, and the audience for the tactical history sim has only grown thanks to ports to nearly every platform under the sun, including Mac, mobile, Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game has also received a number of DLC add-ons, most notably the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions.
Those expansions aren’t included in your free download of the game, but the Platinum Edition Upgrade, which includes both expansions plus six other DLC packs, is half off on the store until June 11, costing $39.99 instead of the usual $79.99.
Support for the game isn’t ending anytime soon either, as developer Firaxis Games announced a “New Frontiers” season pass earlier this month, releasing six new content packs every other month from May until March 2021 alongside free updates.
For more on Civilization VI, read our review and check out our tips for both Rise and Fall and .