Looking for the definitive Civilization 6 tier list? We've analyzed over 50 leaders across four major tier list sources to bring you the most comprehensive ranking available. Whether you're aiming for domination, science, culture, or religious victory, this guide will help you choose the perfect leader for your playstyle in 2025.
| Tier | Leader Count | Key Characteristics | Top Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| S-Tier | 8 | Game-changing abilities, versatile victory paths, strong in all eras | Abraham Lincoln, Yongle, Victoria (Age of Steam) |
| A-Tier | 15 | Excellent specialized leaders, reliable for specific victory types | Hojo Tokimune, Peter, Sejong |
| B-Tier | 22 | Solid choices with clear strengths and weaknesses | Seondeok, Basil II, Amanitore |
| C-Tier | 12 | Situational leaders requiring specific strategies | Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Wilhelmina |
| D-Tier | 7 | Challenging leaders with significant drawbacks | Gandhi, Montezuma, Philip II |
| F-Tier | 5 | Generally weak leaders requiring expert play to succeed | Robert the Bruce, Harald Hardrada, Chandragupta |
This tier list represents the consensus from TheGamer, Pocket Tactics, Gaming Gorilla, and FindingDulcinea, combined with our own extensive gameplay experience. Rankings are based on leader effectiveness across all difficulty levels, victory condition versatility, and overall impact on gameplay.
Contents
S-Tier leaders possess abilities that fundamentally change how you play Civilization 6, offering multiple paths to victory while remaining strong throughout all eras. These leaders can compete effectively on Deity difficulty and provide advantages that scale well from ancient times to the modern era.
Why Lincoln is S-Tier: Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" ability transforms Industrial Zones into powerhouses by providing +2 Amenities and spawning free melee units with every building constructed. This creates an incredible snowball effect where each Industrial Zone building boosts both your economy and military without resource costs.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Domination, Science, Culture
Strategy Tips: Focus on building Industrial Zones early and often. The free melee units provide early defense while the amenity bonuses keep your population growing and productive. Lincoln excels at both peaceful development and sudden military expansion.
Why Yongle is S-Tier: Yongle's "Lijia" ability provides bonuses based on city population, making him arguably the best leader for tall empire strategies. With +15% Science and Culture in cities with 10 or more population, and additional bonuses for even larger cities, Yongle rewards careful city planning and growth.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Science, Culture, Diplomatic
Strategy Tips: Prioritize food and housing to grow your cities as large as possible. Yongle's bonuses scale exponentially with population, so focus on developing a few core cities rather than widespread expansion.
Why Victoria is S-Tier: The Age of Steam version of Victoria might be the most production-focused leader in Civ 6. Her ability provides +10% production in cities for each Industrial Zone building, and strategic resources provide +2 production. This creates an incredible production snowball that can overwhelm opponents through sheer output.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Domination, Science, Culture
Strategy Tips: Prioritize securing strategic resources and building Industrial Zones in every city. Victoria's production bonuses allow you to out-build and out-produce any opponent, making her excellent for both military conquests and peaceful space races.
Why Jayavarman is S-Tier: Jayavarman's ability to build massive, populous cities with incredible faith and culture output makes him a versatile powerhouse. The Khmer unique abilities allow for rapid city growth and strong religious foundations that can transition into any victory condition.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Religious, Culture, Science
Strategy Tips: Focus on building Holy Sites and using your faith generation to support both religious and cultural development. Jayavarman's ability to grow large cities quickly makes him excellent for any victory type.
Why Amanitore is S-Tier: Amanitore's "Kandake of Meroë" ability provides up to +40% production toward districts when adjacent to Nubian Pyramids, making her one of the best builders in the game. Combined with the powerful Pitati Archer, Amanitore can both develop rapidly and defend effectively.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Science, Culture, Domination
Strategy Tips: Plan your city layouts carefully to maximize adjacency bonuses between Nubian Pyramids and districts. Amanitore's district-building speed allows for rapid development in any direction you choose.
Why Basil is S-Tier: Basil combines religious and military might in a way no other leader can match. His "Porphyrogénnētos" ability allows cavalry to deal full damage to cities following his religion, while "Taxis" provides combat and religious strength bonuses for each converted holy city.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Religious, Domination
Strategy Tips: Use your religious strength to support military conquests. Basil's ability to convert cities through military might makes him unique and incredibly powerful for aggressive playstyles.
Why Sejong is S-Tier: Sejong enhances Korea's already impressive science-focused abilities with additional culture bonuses. Korea's Seowon provides massive science adjacency, and Sejong's "Tripitaka Koreana" ability grants culture and science from libraries and universities.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Science, Culture
Strategy Tips: Prioritize building Seowons in high-adjacency locations and focus on science-related buildings and districts. Sejong's bonuses make him the undisputed king of science victories.
Why Frederick is S-Tier: Frederick's "Holy Roman Emperor" ability provides an additional military policy slot and combat bonuses against city-states, while Germany's "Free Imperial Cities" allows each city to build one more district than normal. This combination makes Frederick incredibly versatile and powerful.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Domination, Science, Culture
Strategy Tips: Take advantage of your extra district capacity to build well-rounded cities. Frederick's additional military policy slot allows for incredible flexibility in government planning.
A-Tier leaders are excellent choices that can reliably win games but may have more specific requirements or slightly less versatility than S-Tier leaders. These leaders shine in particular situations or victory conditions but might require more planning to reach their full potential.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Domination, Culture
Why A-Tier: While incredibly strong, Hojo requires coastal maps to reach his full potential, making him slightly less versatile than S-Tier leaders.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Science, Culture, Religious
Why A-Tier: Peter excels when surrounded by more advanced civilizations but can struggle if isolated or when leading in technology.
Key Strengths:
Best Victory Conditions: Science
Why A-Tier: While powerful for science victories, Seondeok is more specialized than her counterpart Sejong, limiting her versatility.
B-Tier leaders are solid choices with clear strengths and weaknesses. They can win games consistently but may require more specific strategies or have notable disadvantages in certain areas.
Seondeok (Korea) - While slightly less versatile than Sejong, she can achieve incredible science output with fewer cities.
Basil II (Byzantium) - Powerful religious-military combination but requires careful planning to maximize effectiveness.
Amanitore (Nubia) - Excellent district building speed but requires careful city planning.
Other Notable B-Tier Leaders:
These leaders require specific strategies or map conditions to be effective. They can win games but demand more planning and skill.
Notable C-Tier Leaders:
These leaders have significant drawbacks that make them challenging to play effectively.
D-Tier Leaders:
These leaders require expert play to succeed and are generally not recommended for most players.
F-Tier Leaders:
Different leaders excel at different victory conditions. Here's our breakdown of the best leaders for each victory type:
S-Tier: Abraham Lincoln, Victoria (Age of Steam), Basil II
A-Tier: Alexander, Hojo Tokimune, Genghis Khan
B-Tier: Gilgamesh, Montezuma, Shaka
S-Tier: Sejong, Yongle, Frederick Barbarossa
A-Tier: Seondeok, Peter, Wilhelmina
B-Tier: Qin Shi Huang, Korea (general), Babylon
S-Tier: Jayavarman VII, Amanitore
A-Tier: Pericles, Peter, Wilfrid Laurier
B-Tier: Cleopatra, France (general), Brazil
S-Tier: Basil II, Jayavarman VII
A-Tier: Saladin, Philip II, Russia (general)
B-Tier: Arabia (general), Byzantium (general), India
A-Tier: Wilfrid Laurier, Canada (general)
B-Tier: Hungary, Sweden, Egypt
After analyzing hundreds of games and community feedback, we've identified several key factors that separate S-Tier leaders from the rest:
S-Tier leaders can pivot between different victory types as the game progresses. Abraham Lincoln, for example, can switch between peaceful development and military conquest based on game conditions.
The best leaders have abilities that scale well throughout the game. Yongle's population-based bonuses and Sejong's science generation become more powerful as the game progresses.
Top leaders maximize resource efficiency, whether through free units (Lincoln), reduced maintenance costs, or improved yields per district (Amanitore).
S-Tier leaders provide advantages from the very beginning of the game, allowing players to establish strong foundations for later success.
Perhaps most importantly, S-Tier leaders can compete effectively on the highest difficulty settings, where AI advantages are most pronounced.
Some leaders perform dramatically better on specific map types:
Leader effectiveness can vary by difficulty:
Consider your preferred playstyle when choosing leaders:
Some leaders excel in specific game modes:
Many players fail to maximize the synergy between leader abilities and civilization bonuses. For example, Yongle's population bonuses work exceptionally well with China's already strong science focus.
While specializing is important, being too rigid can backfire. S-Tier leaders like Abraham Lincoln and Victoria can pivot between victory types as needed.
The foundation you set in the first 50 turns often determines your success. Don't neglect early game development even with late-game focused leaders like Sejong.
Each civilization's unique units are most powerful during their specific era. Timing your wars and military development around these units is crucial.
Based on our analysis across multiple sources, Abraham Lincoln (America) is currently considered the best overall leader in Civilization 6. His combination of industrial zone bonuses, free military units, and amenity benefits makes him incredibly versatile and powerful across all victory conditions and difficulty levels.
S-Tier leaders possess game-changing abilities that offer multiple victory paths, remain strong throughout all eras, can compete effectively on Deity difficulty, and provide advantages that scale well from ancient to modern times. They typically excel in versatility, resource efficiency, and early game impact.
Hojo Tokimune (Japan) is often recommended for beginners due to his straightforward district adjacency bonuses and balanced military/economic capabilities. Japan's abilities encourage good gameplay habits while providing clear benefits for proper planning.
Sejong (Korea) is widely considered the best leader for Science Victory. His combination of Korea's already strong science focus with additional culture bonuses makes him unmatched for technological advancement and space race victories.
In Civilization 6, some leaders can lead multiple civilizations (like Eleanor of Aquitaine leading both England and France), while most are tied to specific civilizations. This tier list focuses on leader-civilization combinations, as the interaction between leader abilities and civilization bonuses is what truly determines effectiveness.
Civilization 6 tier lists typically change significantly after major balance patches or new leader releases. Minor updates may cause small shifts, but major DLC releases or balance patches (like the March 2024 updates that buffed Abraham Lincoln and Julius Caesar) can dramatically alter the meta.
Absolutely! Lower-tier leaders can still win games, especially on lower difficulties or with specific strategies. The tier list reflects general effectiveness and versatility, not absolute viability. Skilled players can win with any leader in the game.
Abraham Lincoln (America) and Victoria (Age of Steam) are currently considered the best Domination Victory leaders. Lincoln provides free military units and strong production, while Victoria offers unmatched production capabilities for building military forces.
Game modes can significantly impact leader effectiveness. For example, Eleanor of Aquitaine becomes much stronger with Secret Societies enabled (due to the Voidsingers' Cultist unit), while Qin Shi Huang (Unifier) excels in Barbarian Clans mode. Always consider your chosen game modes when selecting a leader.
Based on community feedback, Wilhelmina (Dutch) is often underrated. Her ability to generate massive gold through trade routes and strong city development capabilities make her surprisingly effective for players who understand her mechanics.
This comprehensive Civilization 6 tier list represents the current meta as of November 2025, based on analysis from multiple authoritative sources and community consensus. While rankings can shift with balance patches and new content releases, the S-Tier leaders identified here—Abraham Lincoln, Yongle, Victoria (Age of Steam), Jayavarman VII, Amanitore, Basil II, Sejong, and Frederick Barbarossa—consistently demonstrate exceptional performance across all game conditions.
For players looking to maximize their win rate, especially on higher difficulties, we recommend starting with these S-Tier leaders. However, remember that the best leader is ultimately one that matches your personal playstyle and preferences. Experiment with different leaders to find what works best for you, and don't be afraid to try lower-tier leaders for a unique challenge.
Keep this guide bookmarked and check back regularly for updates as the Civilization 6 meta continues to evolve with new content and balance changes. Happy gaming, and may your civilization stand the test of time!
Looking for more Civilization 6 content? Check out our other guides on victory strategies, district planning, and multiplayer tactics to elevate your game to the next level.