Strategy · April 9, 2013

Age of Empires II (Retired) (2013)

trophy294 achievementsextension3 DLCgroup10M–100M ownerstrending_up2.3k peak concurrentrecommend84.1k recommendations

With the release of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in 2019, this edition is not the most current and will not be updated further. In Age of Empires II: HD Edition, fans of the original game and new players alike will fall in love with the classic Age of Empires II experience. Explore all the original single player campaigns from both Age of Kings and The Conquerors expansion, choose from 18 civilizations spanning over a thousand years of history, and head online to challenge other Steam players in your quest for world domination throughout the ages. Originally developed by Ensemble Studios and re-imagined in high definition by Hidden Path Entertainment, Skybox Labs, and Forgotten Empires, Microsoft Studios is proud to bring Age of Empires II: HD Edition to Steam!

Position in Strategy

Metric	This title	Genre position
Review volume	101.4k Steam reviews	Top 7% in Strategy
Positive rating	96% positive	Genre average: 84% — this title sits in top 13%
Metacritic	68/100	Genre average 79 — top 96% of Strategy titles
Concurrent peak	2.3k players	Top 11% in Strategy by live player count
Engagement hours	52 h average	Top 17% for session depth among Strategy

Community Tag Signals

Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.

Strategy · 2.8k
RTS · 2.2k
Medieval · 1.4k
Multiplayer · 1.4k
Classic · 1.3k
Historical · 1.0k
Base-Building · 882
City Builder · 762
Resource Management · 738
Singleplayer · 706
Tactical · 560
Real-Time · 506
Co-op · 492
Competitive · 455
Replay Value · 341

Localization Coverage

Interface / Subtitles (11)

English volume_up
German volume_up
French volume_up
Italian volume_up
Korean volume_up
Spanish - Spain volume_up
Simplified Chinese volume_up
Russian
Japanese
Dutch
Portuguese - Brazil volume_up

Full audio (8)

English
German
French
Italian
Korean
Spanish - Spain
Simplified Chinese
Portuguese - Brazil

Peer Strategy titles

Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.

Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition

2009 · 98% · 139.9k · 87/100 MC

STAR WARS™ Empire at War - Gold Pack

2010 · 98% · 39.4k

Sid Meier's Civilization® V

2010 · 96% · 204.3k · 90/100 MC

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

2019 · 95% · 162.5k · 84/100 MC

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

2012 · 93% · 56.4k · 89/100 MC

Total War: SHOGUN 2

2011 · 92% · 64.3k · 90/100 MC

Reception Metrics

Steam community

96%Overwhelmingly Positive · 101.4k reviews

97.3k positive · 4.1k negative

Metacritic

68/100 critic aggregate

Open Metacritic page

Curator recommendations

84.1k

Peak concurrent players

2.3k

Features & Capabilities

Multiplayer

Multi-player

Community

Steam Achievements
Steam Trading Cards
Steam Workshop
Steam Cloud
Stats
Steam Leaderboards

Accessibility

Captions available

Other

Single-player
Includes level editor
Family Sharing

Engagement Profile

All-time avg

52h

substantial (40–100 hours)

Median

10h

Typical completion time

2-week avg

Current engagement

Achievements

294

Steam unlocks available

Release & Availability

Release date	Apr 9, 2013
Developer	Skybox Labs, Hidden Path Entertainment, Ensemble Studios, Forgotten Empires
Publisher	Xbox Game Studios
Base price	$19.99
DLC / Add-ons	3 released
Platforms	Windows
Estimated owners	10M–100M
External links	Official site · Metacritic page · Support

Strategy releases from 2013

5 Strategy titles launched in 2013 — top 4 by review volume.

Company of Heroes 2

2013 · 79% · 109.8k · 80/100 MC

Total War: ROME II - Emperor Edition

2013 · 83% · 88.2k · 76/100 MC

Worms Armageddon

2013 · 94% · 10.1k

Worms Clan Wars

2013 · 79% · 3.1k · 73/100 MC

Editions & Packages

Buy Age of Empires II (Retired)