Release date, price and platforms
Out since 3 November 2026 at $24.99 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Expansion Pass 4 at $49.99 includes it plus Singer of Storms and two 2027 expansions.
The Silver Seas released on 3 November 2026. It costs $24.99 on its own and runs on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. There is no Switch version and no last-generation console release, so if you are still on PS4 or Xbox One this expansion is not available to you at any price.
The other number that matters is $49.99, the price of Expansion Pass 4, which includes this expansion plus three other pieces. Which of those two numbers is the right one for you depends entirely on whether you expect to still be playing Age of Wonders 4 in the second quarter of 2027.
The purchase options, side by side
| Option | Price (USD) | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Silver Seas only | $24.99 | Mercantile culture, 2 forms, 4 tomes, Free Captains, ocean content | Players who want the sea and nothing else |
| Expansion Pass 4 | $49.99 | This expansion, Singer of Storms, Court of the Archfey, Forge of the Firstborn | Anyone planning to keep playing into 2027 |
| Base game only | $19.99 | The full base game plus the free Manta update | First-time players testing the water |
| Base game + this DLC | $44.98 | Everything above except the other three pass pieces | A one-off purchase with no future commitment |
The base game is required for all of the above: this is an expansion, not a standalone product.
Content, counted
Triumph's release announcement lists the expansion's contents explicitly, which makes the value question unusually easy to audit. You are paying for one culture with two subcultures, two forms, four tomes, one dwelling with six captain quest lines, one realm template with new traits, one mount, one society trait, six achievements, three music tracks, four premade rulers — one of them the returning Legacy Ruler Marinus, a new interface skin and banner emblems.
The parts you will feel in the first hour are the culture and the water. The parts that extend a run are the tomes and the captains. The parts that are cosmetic are honest about it: a UI skin, banner emblems, three music tracks by Michiel van den Bos.
The free weekend, and why the date matters
The release announcement also confirms that Age of Wonders 4 itself was free to play from 10 AM PT on 5 November to 10 AM PT on 9 November 2026, on Steam and Xbox. That is the base game, not the expansion, and it is the cheapest possible way to find out whether the underlying 4X loop is for you before spending $24.99 on top of it.
Note the time zone. 10 AM PT is 19:00 CET the same day, and for players in Asia it lands late in the evening. On 5 November the window is open; after 9 November the base game is back to full price.
Regional pricing and editions
The $24.99 figure is the US Steam price. Regional storefronts set their own numbers, and console stores sometimes differ from Steam by a small amount. There is no deluxe edition — one SKU, one price, so the only choice is alone or inside the pass.
Before you pay
- Your platform. PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S only. No Switch, no PS4, no Xbox One.
- Your base game. The expansion will not launch without Age of Wonders 4 installed and updated.
- Your patch level. The launch build is 1.017.001.126767. Older builds do not contain the Manta systems the expansion assumes.
- Your expansion pass. If you already own Expansion Pass 4, do not buy this again; it is included and the store should mark it as owned.
Still deciding? The Expansion Pass 4 breakdown does the arithmetic on the bundle, and the is it worth it page compares what you get against the free update.
Price in context
Two reference points make the $24.99 easier to place. The base game sells for $19.99, so the expansion costs slightly more than the game it runs on — normal for a Paradox expansion, and the reason the free weekend mattered: it let people try the base game before committing to an add-on that costs more than the base game itself.
The second reference is Singer of Storms, the instant content pack that came with Expansion Pass 4 on 1 October 2026. Its own store listing shows $49.99, the same price as the entire pass, with a note that it may be sold separately later. Whatever that listing settles at, it makes the pass look less like a bundle discount and more like the only sensible way to buy the first piece.
Not in the box
The expansion does not include any cosmetic pack sold separately, and it does not include the older expansion passes. If you are missing Expansion Pass 1, 2 or 3, this purchase will not fill those gaps, the store will still list them as owned separately.
It also does not include the base game's soundtrack or art book, which are sold as separate products on Steam.
A note on launch pricing
There was no launch discount. The expansion went on sale at $24.99 and stayed there through its first week, which is worth knowing if you are waiting for a sale that has already passed: Paradox discounts regularly, but rarely in the first month.
