Let’s be real: for years, playing a strategy game on a console felt like trying to perform surgery with oven mitts. You’d spend half your time fighting a clunky cursor and the other half squinting at text so small it was basically an eye exam. But fast forward to 2026, and things have changed. Big time. Your PS5 isn’t just for cinematic brawlers and sports sims anymore—it’s actually becoming the best place to build an empire while wearing pajamas.
This hasn’t always been the case, though. See I come from a time when strategy games on console were few and waaaayyyy far between.

I remember playing Civilization Revolution on the Xbox 360 back in the day, and completely being blown away. Man, if good old Sid Meijer would remaster that bad boy for the PS5 I would still be playing it today! I still kind of feel that way about it, but honestly it’s probably just nostalgia talking. It wasn’t the BEST version of the legendary franchise, but it was all we had, and I’d be damned if I didn’t put over a thousand hours into it.

Of course, there were other great games that came from the humble hardware that were home consoles at that time. Endwar completely revolutionized how real time strategy games were designed for consoles with a deep multiplayer connected world map, as well as amazing voice controls where you could command units with your voice rather than flip through a million control menus. Here’s the real kicker about that game: UBISOFT ABANDONED IT! It still blows my mind that they created one of the most unique strategy experiences and simply left it to die with the PS3 and Xbox 360. Just another blunder move by Ubisoft, but that deserves its own article…

What about today? Consoles have quickly caught up to the performance standards set by the PC allowing developers to easily port popular games to the PS5 without too much fuss. I mean, y’all, we got several Paradox Interactive games as well as freaking two amazing Civilization games. I could list dozens of great examples of what we currently have, but it’s what we have coming in the future that excited me even more.

Not only do we have greats like Stellaris and Crusader Kings 3 NOW, but we are getting Total War Games ported over which was once thought to simply be impossible. Yeah, take that PC master race. We are entering a golden age of strategy games on consoles, and if you have been too hesitant to hop in and try one, I would strongly urge you to! There has simply been no better time to be a strategy gamer than it is today. I hope this article convinces you to join the ranks of thinkers and strategists, cause lord knows we need more of them in the world.

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