Stellaris

Stellaris is a real-time 4X grand strategy game set in a procedurally generated galaxy. Players control an interstellar civilization, exploring star systems connected by hyperlane networks, colonizing habitable worlds, and managing their empire's economy across resources like energy, minerals, and alloys. The game emphasizes empire customization through species traits, ethics, government types, and civics that shape both aesthetics and mechanics. Gameplay progresses through diplomacy, trade, and warfare with other civilizations, while mid-game and late-game galactic crises introduce escalating threats such as extragalactic invasions or hostile artificial intelligence awakenings. Players can pursue ascension paths including genetic engineering, cybernetic augmentation, or psionic abilities. Originally released for PC, the game later received a console edition and has been supported with numerous expansions adding megastructures, new empire types, espionage mechanics, and additional crisis scenarios.

Below are the four PC tiers we'd actually recommend for Stellaris today. These are our 2026 hardware picks, not the dated publisher minimums you'll find on Steam.

Official system requirements

These are the minimum and recommended specs as published by Paradox Interactive on Steam. They tend to be conservative — usually "what ran the game at 1080p when it shipped". For what you should actually buy in 2026, see the tier cards above.

Verified 16 July 2026 against the Steam store page.

Can your PC run Stellaris?

If your CPU is roughly equivalent to Intel® iCore™ i5-3570K and your GPU is at or above Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 560 Ti (1GB VRAM), you'll hit recommended settings at 1080p/60. For 1440p or higher, see the tier picks above.

Best gaming PC for Stellaris → · Can I run it?