Civilization 6 is free on the Epic Games Store

(Image credit: Firaxis)

Last week's giveaway of Grand Theft Auto 5 was the biggest Epic Games Store freebie so far—you could tell, because it demolished the store for nearly an entire day. But the free game that's taken its place today is no slouch either—it's the outstanding strategy hit Civilization 6. (And luckily, at this point there's no sign of a storefront collapse.)

Civilization 6 has been around for well over three years now, but Firaxis and 2K are still actively supporting it. In fact, a new season pass with six DLCs was announced earlier this month. And strategy games tend to age well, especially when they're as good as Civ 6, which we called the best of the Civilization series in our 93% review: So good that "I’ll never need another Civ game in my life," our reviewer wrote, which is about as solid an endorsement as you're going to get.

Take note that, under Epic's new rules, you'll need to have 2FA enabled on your account to claim the game—if you haven't done that yet, you can learn how to do so here. Civilization 6 will be free on the Epic Games Store until 11 am PT on May 28.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.