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This paper investigates the causes behind the phenomenon of players losing interest and dropping off late-stage 4X games, in specific the game Sid Meier's Civilization VI. The authors propose three hypotheses that might help to explain this phenomenon. Namely, in late 4X games the player is likely to experience (1) loss of gameplay and mechanics, (2) snowballed production abilities, and (3) high repeatability of management and resource allocation. To verify, this investigation relied on a mixed methodology of exploratory interviews that were used to design a survey. This survey was then conducted in both English and Chinese, with a total of 196 respondents. Results revealed that 42% of respondents drop often in the late game. Players that tend to get snowballed are more likely to be able to predict the outcome of the game without having to finish, and 68% of the respondents agreed that the longer time per turn in the late game was a motivating factor for dropping off. Respondents also declared missing favorite activities that are no longer available or limited in the late game, such as exploring the map, expanding your imperium, and constructing wonders and districts. By combining results from the survey with three psychology and game design theories, namely, the Flow theory, the MDA framework, and the Skill Chain, the three hypotheses appear to be strong contributors to the causes behind late-stage drop off in 4X games. The investigation concludes by proposing two suggestions for improving this situation.