Summary
As one of the victory types existing inCivilization 6, Cultural Victories can be quite tricky for some players to achieve due to the relatively strict conditions to make it happen. It is necessary to have a large amount of culture and tourism to acquire the elusive victory type.
However, once a player sets a course and successfully makes a foundation for a Culture Victory, they can be quite unstoppable since it can happen spontaneously and catch other civilizations off guard, including in multiplayer games against human players.
Updated on June 23, 2025, by Mehrdad Khayyat:While achieving a Culture Victory can be difficult, the good news is that there is no direct opposition between players similar to the thrive for Religious Victory that could end up in religious war between civilizations.
Culture Victory creates a peaceful competition between players, where everyone is competing against their best record, and there is no real confrontation between tourists, though it’s important to maintain a good balance between Domestic and Foreign tourists.
16Greece - Gorgo
Gain Culture By Defeating Enemies
Greece is a cultural powerhouse inCivilization 6. Their unique district, the Acropolis, gives them an early head start on Culture production each turn, and the fact that they get an extraWildcard policy for all governments, including Chiefdoms, means that they can gain Great People faster or use other Wildcard policies to adapt to their current needs.
Gorgo also gains Culture based on the Combat Strength of enemies slain by her units, which means that aggressive players can snowball their military victories into a cultural renaissance. This makes her a frightening adversary, especially if the Gorgo player is gunning for either a Domination or Culture Victory.
15America - Bull Moose Teddy
Gain Extra Culture From Woods And Wonders
Teddy Roosevelt is known for creating National Parks; his play style inCivilization 6focuses on tiles with natural beauty and appeal. The Bull Moose persona builds on this emphasis to lead players to pursue Science or Culture naturally. His Breathtaking Appeal tiles gain +2 Science for being adjacent to Natural Wonders or Mountains and +2 Culture for being adjacent to Woods or Wonders.
Settling near Natural Wonders and then building man-made Wonders can catapult America players toward a Cultural Victory very quickly. As long as there isn’t anotherWonder-focused civilizationcompeting against him, Teddy can easily become the dominant culture in his matches.
14Persia - Nader Shah
Culture-Heavy Nation Focused On Trade Routes
Persia is one of the Culture-focused nations inCivilization 6, and it does it in a proper way. Trade Routes are something that each civilization will want to upgrade and extend sooner or later, and the Persian empire grew its culture through the Trade Routes, which is already a win-win deal, though it only works when the routes remain domestic, which might not be the most profitable option.
However, there is a fix for that too. Actually, that’s why Nader Shah is a better leader than Cyrus in this case, as the former grants +3 Gold for the domestic Trade Routes, which is a massive compensation for not crossing the borders.
13Sweden - Kristina
Great Works Are Automatically Themed When Full
Typically, players have totrade Great Works inCiv 6to have the added culture and tourism from the building’s Theming Bonus. For Kristina, however, this bonus just comes whenever the building is full of Great Works. This means that Kristina players can focus on recruiting Great People without worrying about how to maximize their Great Works.
This bonus is made even better by Sweden’s unique building: the Queen’s Bibliotheque. This building can hold 6 Great Works in it, which is more than any other building in the game. It also generates points towards recruiting a Great Musician, Great Writer, and Great Artist. Once filled, this provides an enormous amount of culture and tourism. Players who like to hoard Great Works in order to win a Culture Victory should consider playing as Kristina.
12Kongo - Nzinga Mbande
Gain Great Artists And Musicians Rapidly
Amassing a large number of Great Artists and Great Musicians is important for any civilization that aspires to get a Culture Victory over its competitors, as those Great People can get the player various Great Works of Art and Music, which generates both Tourism and Culture. Thanks to its unique civilization ability, Kongo will be able to gain these Great People at a faster rate than their competitors, putting them at an advantage in gaining a Culture Victory.
Moreover, they are able to quickly build up their cities by having Relics, Artifacts, and Sculptures, as those Great Works will boost the cities by granting Gold, Faith, Food, and Production each. When coupled with Nzinga Mbande’s unique ability to boost yields for every city in the same continent as the civilization’s capital, Kongo will become a cultural powerhouse capable of single-handedly winning the game on their own, should their competitor fail to notice Kongo’s attempt to build up their Culture base.
11Georgia - Tamar
Significant Tourism Improvement During A Golden Age
Although the only thing that helps Georgia with tourism is its unique building, it provides such a massive boost that it is just hard to ignore. Tsikhe shines when the players put their effort toward achieving a Golden Age, where the building offers +6 Tourism and +8 Faith.
Tsikhe alone is one of the best buildings in Civilization 6 for both Culture Victory and Religious Victory. This building does help Georgians a lot to get ahead of their opponents in attracting Foreign tourists. However, the civilization offers no bonus for Culture improvement, which leaves the player with the basic ways of doing so.
10Japan - Tokugawa
A Leader Who Is A Big Fan Of Tourism
When it comes to tourism, Tokugawa is by far the most rewarding leader to choose. Thanks to the leader’s perk, expanding international Trade Routes will grant player Tourism, which is the most important token in the game, to move forward in the competition. But, even keeping the routes domestic wouldn’t hurt the progression as it will generate Culture instead, helping the player to prevent other civilizations from getting ahead of them.
Japan’s Electronic Factory is also a massive source of Culture that activates later in the game when electricity is a thing. Having this unique building in each city will grant a massive boost to cultural progression.
9Ethiopia - Menelik II
Use Faith Generation To Gain Cultural Advantage
Faith can be seen as one of the crucial resources needed for a civilization to obtain a Culture Victory due to its ability to gain several important Culture Victory landmarks, such as gaining early Religion Tourism and amassing a large amount of Faith for purchasing Rock Bands down the line. These Rock Bands will be crucial enough to gain Tourism in other civilizations that might resist the passive Tourism gain of Ethiopia.
Moreover, its unique infrastructure, the Rock-Hewn Church, has the potential to gain a large amount of Tourism as Ethiopia reaches the latter stages of the game by researching thestrong and powerful technology, Flight. With these advantages, Ethiopia can be seen as a potential threat in a game if the game goes peacefully, as they are able to convert peacetime into a huge advantage via their innate bonuses to gain a Culture Victory over their competitors.
8Maori - Kupe
An Unstoppable Culture Juggernaut With Passive Tourism Gain
For both veteran and new players ofCivilization 6, playing as Maori can be quite tricky since its mechanics are relatively unique compared to other civilizations. For instance, Maori start in the middle of the ocean, making luck a necessary element as they will need to spend a few turns without a city and try to find an island.
Other than those limitations, players will discover that playing as Maori is hugely beneficial fora Culture Victory focus. By settling on lands with many feature tiles, they will be able to build a Marae in Theater Square to quickly gain Culture and Tourism.
7Khmer - Jayavarman VII
Flexible Civilization Capable Of Having Religious Tourism
Khmer is one of the civilizations in the game that can take on multiple victory types without any problems,including Religion Victory, provided that the player builds a solid foundation by settling their cities on the river to take advantage of their bonus with Aqueducts and Prasat. Moreover, settling on the river would provide Khmer with a fast-growing city.
With these huge cities, they will also be able to acquire easy tourism points as a city with Prasat will provide 10 tourism if the city has 10 or more population and 20 tourism for a city with more than 20 population. Since the huge cities guarantee a productive city as well, Khmer players can take advantage of acquiring a quick Culture Victory.
