Hearts of Iron III
Skip · Strategy · 2009
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
It scores 31, under the fair line, at $9.99.
- Cost per hourS
- $0.78/hr
- Reviews▼
- 71% of 6,508
- Critics
- 77 players 6 lower
- Genre rank
- Top 45% Strategy
Holding it back: Reviews
Why
Watch this gameOne alert at a price you pick.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 12.8h
- To 100%
- 243.9h 19.1x the story
Price and sales
- Sales
- 110 on record
- Typical cut
- 75% off
- Steam low
- $1.99 October 2015
- Sale every
- 38d last October 2026
Players and genre
- Online
- 28 now
- Cheaper than
- 29% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 35% of its genre
Price and player charts
The value story
The value story
It has been discounted 110 times in the 14 years tracked here. The median cut across all of them is 75 percent, about 5 weeks apart. Today it is at full price, and its last discount ended about 4 weeks ago.
Against its own genre its score lands in the top 45 percent. It is pricier than 71 percent of its genre, and less well reviewed than 65 percent. Among the games that feel like it, Hearts of Iron IV ($49.99, scores 79) beats it on value, while it beats Victoria 3 ($49.99, scores 27).
More about Hearts of Iron III
Of the 800 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 7 come from buyers who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written December 2023 to October 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 43 percent of the 974 reviews written there were positive, against 71 percent overall, and those are 18 percent of everything written about it.
Finishing takes 12.8 hours; clearing it takes 244, which is 19 times the campaign.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Discounted in each of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last discount ended 31 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
Garbage dev and publisher. Literally zero redeeming qualities. You know I tell people, if I was running it, it would be tremendous. The most tremendous company in the history of America. Instead we have these guys running it. Terrible. Sad. Pathetic even. An absolute waste. Only sleepy Joe could run a company this bad. We used to be able to run companies in this country. Now we can't even do that anymore, and it's...
2 more reviews, 1 not recommended
Greedy company with weird hypocritical principles. It's ok to release games with over-bloated and confusing mechanics but at the same time rips tons of options and much interesting mechanics. Not the mention amount of money they demand just to get the game to a more appropriate and fun to play state. Maybe they should consider themselves as controversial and make some actual changes.
The company does not respect Turkish users, persecutes their national leader, and oppresses the nation. Respect!
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
Hearts of Iron III lets you play the most engaging conflict in world history, World War 2, on all fronts as any country and through multiple different scenarios. Guide your nation to glory between 1936 and 1948 and wage war, conduct diplomacy and build your industry in the most detailed World War 2 game ever made.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 2 GB of memory, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon X1900 videocard, 2 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
Hearts of Iron III scores 31/100 on the BANG Score (a skip) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/25890/hearts-of-iron-iiiReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Oct 31, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.