Where Are Victoria 3 Save Files Located?
Where Victoria 3 keeps campaigns, mods and settings in the standard Paradox layout on Windows and macOS.
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Victoria 3 follows the standard Paradox layout: campaigns sit in a save games folder under Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3, one file per run. Mods, logs, crash dumps and settings are siblings, so one parent copy grabs the whole game state.
Linux players should note the exception. Unlike its Paradox siblings, Victoria 3 has no native Linux build listed, so Linux runs go through Proton with Windows style paths inside the prefix. Windows and macOS use the Documents layout below with only the root changed.
Where Victoria 3 stores this, by platform
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3\save games
Paste %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Paradox Interactive\Victoria 3 into Explorer. Campaigns are in save games, mods in mod, settings in settings.txt at the same level.
~/Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria 3/save games
Same layout as Windows, under Mac Documents. Reach it in Finder with Go > Go to Folder.
Frequently asked questions
How do I back up a Victoria 3 campaign?
Copy the save file out of save games with the game closed. Cloud and Ironman campaigns live in provider storage rather than the local folder, so a missing campaign is usually a sync state, not a deletion. Achievements need unmodded Ironman.
Where is the Victoria 3 mod folder?
Mods live in the mod folder beside save games: a .mod descriptor plus a folder per mod. The launcher reads both halves, so migrating means copying the pair. Roll back the game version in Steam betas when an old campaign depends on retired mods.
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