Stellaris
Paradox Development Studio · Published by Paradox Interactive
Very Positive — 86% positive (196,897 reviews)
Last updated 27 Sept 2026
Explore a galaxy full of wonders in this sci-fi grand strategy game from Paradox Development Studios. Interact with diverse alien races, discover strange new worlds with unexpected events and expand the reach of your empire. Each new adventure holds almost limitless possibilities.
£41.99
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Price history
Simulation, Strategy · 2016 · More £30+ games
Navigate the vast expanse of space as you build and grow your interstellar empire, encountering unique alien species along the way. In Stellaris, your choices shape an almost limitless universe.
About this game
Roadmap
About the Game
Get ready to explore, discover and interact with a multitude of species as you journey among the stars. Forge a galactic empire by sending out science ships to survey and explore, while construction ships build stations around newly discovered planets. Discover buried treasures and galactic wonders as you spin a direction for your society, creating limitations and evolutions for your explorers. Alliances will form and wars will be declared.
Like all our Grand Strategy games, the adventure evolves with time. Because free updates are a part of any active Paradox game, you can continue to grow and expand your empire with new technologies and capabilities. What will you find beyond the stars? Only you can answer that.
Stellaris now includes the base game, three expansion packs, and a collection of digital goods.
Stellaris: Chart a vast, procedurally generated galaxy where every star system holds a new mystery to uncover or an alien civilization to encounter. Forge a unique empire: from your first warp jump to galactic domination, you decide whether the universe remembers you as a benevolent pioneer or a relentless conqueror.
Utopia: Unlock the full potential of your empire with this expansion focused on the evolution of society. Whether you're building mega-structures or ascending to a higher plane of existence, Utopia helps you create a future that’s as bright as the stars themselves.
Synthetic Dawn Story Pack: Take command of a Machine Empire and reshape the galaxy in your own image. Will you lead your mechanical creations to peaceful coexistence, or will the rise of synthetic life spell the end for organics?
Humanoids Species Pack: the most-played phenotype now gains more variety with unique civics and a new origin. Along with their own unique ship class, new portraits, and more, there’s never been a better time to explore the future of humanity.
And on top of this, the Digital Collector’s Book, a Signed Wallpaper, a Unique Forum Avatar and Icon!
DEEP AND VARIED EXPLORATION
Every game begins with a civilization that has just discovered the means to travel between stars and is ready to explore the galaxy. Have your science ships survey and explore anomalies, leading you into a myriad of quests, introducing strange worlds with even stranger stories and discoveries that may completely change your outcome.
STUNNING SPACE VISUALS
With characteristically complex unique planets and celestial bodies, you will enter a whirlwind of spectacles in a highly detailed universe.
INFINITE VARIATION OF SPECIES AND ADVANCED DIPLOMACY
Through customization and procedural generation, you will encounter infinitely varied races. Choose positive or negative traits, specific ideologies, limitations, evolutions or anything you can imagine. Interact with others through the advanced diplomacy system. Diplomacy is key in a proper grand strategy adventure. Adjust your strategy to your situation through negotiation and skill.
INTERSTELLAR WARFARE
An eternal cycle of war, diplomacy, suspicions and alliances await you. Defend or attack with fully customizable war fleets, where adaptation is the key to victory. Choose from an array of complex technologies when designing and customizing your ships with the complex ship designer. You have a multitude of capabilities to choose from to meet the unknown quests that await.
ENORMOUS PROCEDURAL GALAXIES
Grow and expand your empire with thousands of randomly generated planet types, galaxies, quests and monsters lurking in space.
PLAY THE WAY YOU WANT
Customize your Empire! The characters you choose, be it a murderous mushroom society or an engineering reptile race, can be customized with traits like ethics, type of technology, form of preferred space travel, type of habitat, philosophies and more. The direction of the game is based on your choices.
FREE UPDATE HISTORY
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Stellaris Dev Diary #431 - 4.5 'Cygnus' Development Continues to Continue
by Alfray StrykeHey folks, I’m taking over for Eladrin this week since he’s swamped with meetings and I got voluntold for Dev Diary Duty. The final 4.5 build isn't ready to ship, but we did push an Open Beta update earlier today, here’s the changelogs for that. Stellaris 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Open Beta Update 8 Preliminary Release NotesBalancePops ethics change is accelerated, by increasing a lot the frequency of change and marginally diminishing the size of the changes.Pops faction fill is much slower by default, the ethic attraction factor increased to give agency over that and allow for faster changePops now leave a faction as soon as it becomes invalid or exceeds its eligible Pops, instead of waiting for the monthly updateBugfixThe minimum value for the max number of holding buildings is now always 0 (i.e. the minimum is no longer affected by the base define or certain modifiers).Different modifiers for the max buildings in a branch office are now summed together before being truncated, not after.`POP_ETHOS_MIN_ATTRACTION` is now ignored when no ethic ever reaches it, instead of suppressing the ethics shift entirelyDriven Assimilator purge vassals no longer get stuck on conquered worlds that contain robotic pops. Those pops are now taken in as machines and handed to the Overlord along with the assimilated ones.The "Grotesque Rock Formation" special project is now anchored to the planet the anomaly was found on, instead of following the science ship around the galaxy.Planets colonized by the Contingency or the Prethoryn Scourge now show a complete set of districts, instead of missing their housing districts entirely.Synthetically ascended founder species can now be released as sector vassals, provided the empire has ascended synthetically or researched Synthetic Leaders.C.A.R.E's world can now be bombarded from orbit once its defensive protocols have turned hostile.The Claimant event in the Heirs of the Khan origin now correctly names the rival candidate's species.Fixed...Read full article on Community Announcements (PDX_ladydzra)AnnouncementsOfficial
Stellaris Dev Diary #430 - 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Development Continues
by EladrinWe have another update to the 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Open Beta planned for today! 4.5 Update 7 contains fixes for Nascent Stage (again), some AI updates, and more.Stellaris 4.5 ‘Cygnus’ Open Beta Update 7 Preliminary Release NotesFeature:Nomadic empires and settled empires can negotiate Exclusive Harvesting Rights, letting the nomads harvest the celestial bodies in that empire's space without diplomatic penalties in exchange for a negotiated share of the yield.The Arc Furnace can now be set to different Smelting Processes from tier 3 onwards, changing whether the deposits it uncovers yield minerals, alloys, or a mix of both (as the current behaviour). Switching costs energy and locks the furnace out of changing mode again for 720 days.Empires with the Obsessional Directive civic unlock an additional Commodity Fabrication Smelting Process for the Arc Furnace.Balance:Autocannons, Disruptors and other short-ranged weapons are no longer equippable on Starbases, Orbital Rings or Deep Space Citadels.Trade deposits now increase the resources gained from harvesting a planet.Deep Scanning is less likely to uncover Minor Artifacts if Minor Artifacts have already been found in the system. Shoutout to the Composer of Strands for abusing this.Reduced the arkship harvesting and action modifiers provided by harvester jobs.Reduced the weapon damage each Ordnance Engineering weapon zone grants per soldier job from 5% to 1%.Cybernetic pops now gain 10% Job Efficiency, up from 5%. The Limited Cyberization penalty for hive drones doubles to match.The Cybernetic Luminary leader experience penalty is reduced from 25% to 10%.Bugfix:Nascent Stage pre-sapients mature into their adult species again. (Again.)When new paragon leaders offers their service, accepting or dismissing them play their respective reaction sounds as expectedFixed a case of duplicate options to "Observe entangled mass"Fixed the amount of attunement from the Safeguarding deed.The Dayside Solar farms can now be re-esta...Read full article on Community Announcements (PDX_ladydzra)Press Coverage
Paradox has been cooking up some Stellaris "summer experiments," from megastructure upgrades to a full espionage rework
A new Stellaris developer blog details a range of experimental features the Paradox team has been concepting in the 4X game over the summer. Read the full story on PCGamesN: Paradox has been cooking up some Stellaris "summer experiments," from megastructure upgrades to a full espionage reworkRead full article on PCGamesNAnnouncementsOfficial
Stellaris Dev Diary #429 - Summer Experiments 2026
by EladrinHello everyone! With summer coming to an end, the Stellaris dev diaries are back on the schedule. We’ve updated the 4.5 Open Beta a couple of times now, and have some more changes coming soon with Update 6. Stellaris 4.5 'Cygnus' Open Beta Update 6 Release NotesBalancePop Growth from Hedonists now requires the Colony to have free Housing and Amenities, and is lost entirely while the empire has a Consumer Goods deficit.Hedonists now produce Unity and consume a small amount of Consumer Goods regardless of their Living Standard, where previously the Unity came only from Decadent Lifestyle.Pleasure Seekers empires now begin with a Civilian Industries building instead of Holo-Theatres.Offspring bio-ships now use the same Naval Capacity as the bio-ships they are grown from.The Calling of Arms now asks for a total Naval Capacity in line with current ship sizes, rather than a target reachable with a handful of Corvettes.BugfixBuilding Branch Offices now costs 75 Influence plus a distance penalty of 5 per jump (down from +75 per jump).Terravores will now correctly transfer 100% of the drones they left on a planet they were eating home instead of just 100 of them.The Behemoth will no longer have a 5% chance to kill 5 guys with its super mega breath attack. It's a percentage just like the other options in the random_list.Restored the button that brings you from an Orbital Ring back to its planet.Science Ships will no longer cluster with Arkships when auto-surveying.Nomadic empires with purging banned in their policies no longer create purge vassals when conquering planets.Hedonists no longer produce ever-increasing Pop Growth and Pop Assembly. Their contribution now scales with the percentage of a Colony's population that are Hedonists, reaching a maximum of +30% rather than climbing without limit as the Colony fills.Amenities Usage from Hedonists is now listed under its own heading instead of appearing as a second Decadent Lifestyle entry.The Matriarch's Flagella no...Read full article on Community Announcements (PDX_ladydzra)AnnouncementsOfficial
Last chance! VIR Vinyl Figure LIMITED EDITION | Makeship x Stellaris
The window's closing. This is your final shot at bringing a lifesize VIR home before it's gone for good.Last Chance to claim your VIR Vinyl: https://pdxint.at/4ykbPFzRead full article on Community Announcements (PDX_ladydzra)
