Strategy · August 7, 2007

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® – Dark Crusade (2007)

calendar_todayAge 17+group1M–10M ownerstrending_up236 peak concurrentrecommend7.4k recommendations
Deep under the central desert of Kronus, a vast honeycomb of skull-lined tunnels and funeral chambers house the awakening Necron menace. Eons ago, these were the boulevards and squares of a great necropolis built to house the bones of the races who had fallen to the Necrons, and ultimately were where the Necrons themselves retire to spend eternity. Over millions of years, sand and rock had covered it all until ill-fated excavations awoke the deathless. Play any of seven races, striving for control over Kronus. Take other races' strongholds by winning challenging battles on various maps individually associated with the respective strongholds. New Races Take command of two new playable races: Tau and Necron to unleash massive carnage across the frontlines of battle. Expanded multiplayer Dominate opponents online across 12 new multiplayer maps - with up to 8 players battling it out for supremacy. Deep single player campaign Conquer the planet of Kronus any way you choose - leading any one of seven races on an epic crusade through an all-new, non-linear single player campaign where you can experience unique storylines from each race's perspective. Customization Customize your hero's weapons, items and abilities as he grows in power and influence. Personalize your army with a variety of insignias, squad colors, banners and names.

Community Tag Signals

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

  • Strategy · 298
  • Warhammer 40K · 271
  • RTS · 228
  • Base-Building · 161
  • Sci-fi · 139
  • Multiplayer · 136
  • Singleplayer · 107
  • Games Workshop · 103
  • Real-Time · 89
  • Classic · 83
  • War · 70
  • Gore · 58
  • Action · 50
  • Tactical · 49
  • Atmospheric · 40

Position in Strategy

MetricThis titleGenre position
Review volume9.0k Steam reviewsTop 48% in Strategy
Positive rating96% positiveGenre average: 84% — this title sits in top 13%
Metacritic87/100Genre average 79 — top 13% of Strategy titles
Concurrent peak236 playersTop 42% in Strategy by live player count
Engagement hours16 h averageTop 57% for session depth among Strategy

Reception Metrics

Steam community

96%Overwhelmingly Positive · 9.0k reviews

8.6k positive · 359 negative

Metacritic

87/100 critic aggregate

Open Metacritic page

Metacritic user score

8.9/10

Curator recommendations

7.4k

Peak concurrent players

236

Peer Strategy titles

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

More from Relic Entertainment

Relic Entertainment has 9 titles indexed — top 6 by review volume below.

Strategy releases from 2007

7 Strategy titles launched in 2007 — top 6 by review volume.

Release & Availability

Release dateAug 7, 2007
DeveloperRelic Entertainment
PublisherSEGA
Base priceFree-to-play
Required age17+
PlatformsWindows
Estimated owners1M–10M
External linksOfficial site · Metacritic page · Support

Engagement Profile

All-time avg

16h

moderate (15–40 hours)

Median

5h

Typical completion time

Localization Coverage

Interface / Subtitles (5)

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Spanish - Spain

Content Notes

Frequent grizzly deaths of both humanoid and non-humanoid entities. Blood and gore are prominent.

Features & Capabilities

Multiplayer

  • Multi-player

Community

  • Steam Cloud

Other

  • Single-player
  • Family Sharing